
Book 



3^/74$- 



After 
Earthquake and 

Fire 

A Reprint of the Articles 

AND EDITORIAL COMMENT APPEARING IN THE 

Mining and Scientific Press 



IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE DISASTER AT 



San Francisco, April 18, 1906 



FIRST EDITION 

FIRST THOUSAND 



SAN FRANCISCO 

Mining and Scientific Press 

19 6 



CONTENTS 




Preface 


T. A. Rickard . 


5 


Facsimile of Issue of April 21 




7 


Editorial 




9 


The Earthquake ... 




20 


The Earthquake Commission 




. 29 


The Cause and Nature of Earthquakes 


G. K. Gilbert 


32 


Some Lessons from the Earthquake 


S. B. Christy . 


. 35 


The Earthquake 


A. 0. Leuschner . 


41 


First Observations of the Catastrophe 


D'Arcy Weatherbe . 


. 45 


The Yaqui Country 


Forbes Rickard . 


52 


The Separation of Gold in Antimony Ores 


F. H. Mason . 


. 57 


Muntz Metal Plates 


A. R. Parsons 


67 


A New Method of Smelting Butte Ores 


William A. He vivo od 


. 68 


Editorial 




76 


After the Disaster 




. 78 


The Misuse of Explosives 




85 


Earthquake Lines 


W. H. Storms . 


. 87 


The Effect in Mines . . . . 




91 


Former Earthquakes and Their Dis- 






carded Lessons 




. 92 


A Story in Stone 


■ J., A. Rickard 


96 


Editorial 




105 


Earthquake Sounds 




107 


Misuse of Dynamite 




109 


London Comment 




113 


Earthquakes in Great Britain 




116 


Editorial 




119 


Editorial 




120 


Bad Language 




123 


Concerning the Earthquake 




124 


An Earthquake Formula .... 




127 


The Probable Cause of the San Fran- 






cisco Earthquake 


Frederick L. Ransome 


130 


Another Earthquake Theory . 




136 


Observations of Distant Earthquakes 


F. Omori . 


138 


Report of the State Earthquake Com- 






mission 




148 


The Earthquake Explained 


A. S. Cooper . 


161 


Effects of the Earthquake .... 


D'Arcy Weatherbe 


167 


Following the Pay-Streak 


R. B. Nickerson 


172 


The Recovery of Copper from Mine 






Drainage 


Philip Argall 


178 


Perspective in Mining 


J. Parke Channing . ' 


185 




Our Offices at 330 Market Street, San Francisco. 



PREFACE 



This little book commemorates an experience which we 
shared with our neighbors. It is a tribute to the loyalty of our 
staff and to the goodwill of our friends. We give a photo- 
graphic reduction of the single page that was sent out on April 
20, in place of our issue of April 21, which was consumed, with 
all of our property — save the mailing list — early on the morn- 
ing of April 18. The matter appearing in our issue of April 28 
is given, omitting only the mining news, special correspond- 
ence, market quotations, and other material of purely 
ephemeral interest. In addition, we have reprinted all the 
articles dealing with the earthquake and fire, mainly from our 
issues of April 28, May 5, and June 16. The collection should 
have a scientific value and it will serve as an interesting record 
in days to come. 

T. A. RICKARD. 

August 29, 1906. 



M 



INING and Scientific 



P 



RESS 



Whole No. 2387, 



VOLUME XCII. 



"Science has no enemy save the ignorant," 



MINING and SCIENTIFIC PRESS 



ESTABLISHED MAY 24. 



ished Every Saturday at Berkeley. Calil 



EDITED AND CONTROLLED BY T. -A. RICKARD 



SPE( IALC 


iNTMBUTORS 




J II Curie. 


onard S. Austin. 


11. C. HOOVI r. 


..nris L. Bnsqui. 


Wnljer P .1. nu. 


Oilman Brown 


James 1\ K.tiip 


Park' ciiai.niii- 


C. W. Purlnglun 



BERKELEY, APRIL 21, 1906. 

ANNUAL SllJSCItiPTION. 
States. Mexico and Canada 






PUBLISHED BY THE DEWEY PUBLISHING COMPANY 



Berkeley Postofficc 



TO OUR READERS 



taken to Berkeley, so that wc possess that 
necessary record. Fortunately, most of 
the members of our staff live at Berkeley, 
where the earthquake was less severe and 
where no conflagration followed in the 
wake of this terrifying occurrence. As the 
earthquake occurred at 5:15 A. M.. and 
the fire in San Francisco prevented people j 
on this side of the Bay from reaching their 
offices, most of us were spared the horror 
of scenes that' sear the memory. We are 
fortunate, therefore, as compared to many 
of our fellow citizens. And for other rea- 
sons. Our plant has been demolished; but 
this journal is built on nothing so epheme- 
ral as paper, and on nothing so cheap as 
machinery: it is based upon the support 
of many thousand readers and subscrib- 
ers who are never less likely to withdraw 
their support than at a time of misfortune. 
J N face of the calamity that has befallen The 9°° dwil1 of the Mini n c J and Scientific 
the community in which we live, our own Press is locked up in no safe, confined to 
loss seems small. Our records, our library. | no printing room: it cannot be shaken by 
the note-books of the editors, the manu- ! an earthquake or consumed by fire. And. 
script ready for the printer, and the whole : gentlemen, our friends, there is another 
of the plant in our composing room, all lie j something that is not destructible by phys- 
buried under the ruins of San Francisco, ical misfortune or financial adversity, and 



But. owing to the customary precaution 
observed bv two of us, complete copies of 



that is the spirit that gives life to the printed 
word. T. A. RICKARD. 



the weekly subscription lists had been ' Berkeley. April 20. 1906. 



TO OUR ADVERTISERS 
OUR old offices at 330 Market Street be- 
ing in the very center of the most dam- 
aged section of San Francisco, have been 
totally demolished. We have lost our en- 
tire mechanical plant, including cms. half- 
tones, type and the issue of April 21. which 
had already been set up: but fortunately, 
our complete and most recent mailing list 
has been saved. 

Wc have secured amnle offices in the 
First National Bank Building at Berkeley. 
which is on the cast side of the Bay o< San 
Franciscc and close to the terminus of the 
trans-continental railroads. Through the 
courtesy of The Standard Publishing Com- 
pany, wc are in possession of proper facili- 
ties for printing. The Michlc presses, which 
will do our work, arc new and of the most 
improved type. We will only be handi- 
capped (for a few issues) by scarcity of 
paper: the rush of work at the local photo- 
engraving houses will nrcvent the iise o; 
half-tcnes with our reading matter, but 
wc have arrangements pending to have this 
work done at Sacramento, which city was 
not affected by the earthquake. 

We would urge all of our advertisers 
whose places of business have suffered, to 
communicate with us at the earliest mo- 
ment, as our issue of April 28th will afford 
the best medium for advising their clients 
the world over of any change of address. 
EDGAR RICKARD, 
Business Manager. 



Facsimile of Issue of April 21. 



EDITORIAL. 

April 28, 1906. 

As stated in bur last issue, the offices of this journal are 
now at Berkeley, where we have secured an excellent suite 
of rooms in the First National Bank building, a new five- 
story steel structure of the best type, which went through 
the recent severe test without a mark. In an adjoining build- 
ing is the Standard Publishing Company, with whom we 
have made arrangements for printing. The linotype machines 
and the Miehle presses, together with other mechanical appli- 
ances, are all of the best; and in addition to this equipment, 
we have secured the cooperation of the public-spirited gen- 
tlemen who control the establishment. 



It was a merciful coincidence that among the few structures 
which did not succumb either to the earthquake or to the 
sequel of fire, were the Mint and the Post-office. The mil- 
lions of currency stored in the first will be a prime factor in 
re-establishing financial conditions, while the preservation of 
the mail service will promote organization. As the disaster 
came at dawn, there was not much mail in the boxes and 
chutes, they having been cleared before midnight; more- 
over, the earliness of the hour saved the incoming mail, which 
was on the trains. 



A few hours after the earthquake, we telegraphed to the 
authors of contributions that were lost when our office in 
San Francisco was demolished. By reason of their prompt 
response, we received copies of many of the articles within 
the week following the disaster. This is one of the advan- 
tages of the modern use of the type-writer. Formerly, authors 
had to trust to the preservation of their original copy, so that 
fires consumed a vast amount of valuable manuscript of which 
no duplicate had been preserved elsewhere. 



10 AFTER EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE. 

The value of a self-contained machine or complete unit is 
strikingly proved by the timely service given by the motor 
car during the conflagration. It is true there is many a 
wrecked automobile now lying in the streets of the ruined 
city, but the accident or damage that brought the activity of 
the machine to an end, did not take place until it had served 
a beneficent purpose, with wonderful efficiency. In removing 
wounded, in carrying doctors, in bringing dynamite for the 
blasting operations, in transporting food and, last of all, in 
aiding the escape of the terrified people, the motor car was 
of immense service. It was the only means of rapid loco- 
motion. 



"It is an ill wind that blows no one good." There is evi- 
dence forthcoming from the conflagration in San Francisco, 
such as will stimulate the demand for copper. Our friends 
who are engaged in mining the red metal will be interested 
to know that the offices in the Kohl building, one of the best, 
and in many respects the most modern in construction, of all 
the larger structures in San Francisco, was protected by cop- 
per. The doors, casings and bases, all the interior finish of 
the offices, together with window-sashes, are covered with 
sheet copper. The people who have offices in that building, 
above the sixth floor, have found their papers intact. This 
use of copper is comparatively recent and the evidence just 
quoted should do much to encourage the innovation. 



It is our privilege to publish several special articles dealing 
with recent occurrences. That on 'The Cause and Nature of 
Earthquakes' is by Mr. G. K. Gilbert, of the United States 
Geological Survey, and a scientific authority second to none. 
Mr. A. O. Leuschner, who describes the seismograph records, 
is director of the observatory at the University of California. 
A suggestive article on 'Some Lessons from the Earthquake' 
is by Mr. S. B. Christy, professor of mining and metallurgy 
in the University of California. He needs no introduction to 
our readers. Finally, we are enabled to publish authoritative 
details concerning the Commission appointed by the Gov- 



12 AFTER EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE. 

ernor of the State to gather evidence dealing with recent 
events, and we give an account of the proceedings at the first 
two sessions of the Commission. The contributions by our 
own staff will also be found interesting. 



The first shock of the earthquake, as recorded by the Ewing 
seismograph at the observatory of the University of Califor- 
nia, occurred at 5:12:38 on Wednesday morning, April 18. 
The earth wave traveled in a direction south-southeast to 
north-northwest. The principal shock came in two move- 
ments of maximum intensity, and it lasted two minutes. In 
violence, this earthquake far exceeded both that of 1868 and 
1898. In each case the earth wave traveled in the same gen- 
eral direction. After the first great shock, several minor ones 
were felt. These came at 5 :i3, 5 125, 5 142, 5 :59, 6 :io, 6 :2j, 6 :43, 
6:47, 8:10, 8:15, 11:06 and 12:04. Those that were felt soon 
after eight o'clock were strong and were accompanied by a 
distinct rumbling noise. In the afternoon several shocks 
occurred at longer intervals and at 7:1 there was one, sharp 
and short, but enough to terrify people who were sitting at 
their evening meal after a long day of anxiety. At 3:17 on 
the 25th there was a tremor that caused discomfort to those 
members of our staff who, by that time, were busily occupied 
in preparing this issue for the press. 



Oakland, being just across the Bay from San Francisco, 
and being peopled with a lot of generous folk, has received 
an immense crowd of refugees. The streets remind one of 
Cripple Creek or Leadville in the days of a boom, save that 
horsemen and rowdies are absent. An air of activity, and 
even of up-building, is given by the scaffolding and other tem- 
porary timbered structures necessary in making repairs to 
chimneys and to buildings that suffered from the earthquake. 
The tangle of wires and the accumulation of brick that marked 
the catastrophe were soon straightened or made to look tidy. 
By reason of the total destruction of every composing room 
and printing establishment in San Francisco, the daily papers 
all had to trespass on the courtesy of their contemporaries 



EDITORIAL. 13 

in Oakland, and as a consequence the number and frequency 
of special editions hawked by a multitude of small boys, 
gave Oakland the appearance of a town given up to a big 
political convention. Whatever the outward appearances, and 
they varied from grave to gay, from that which was tragic 
to that which was only amusing, there was, out of sight, in 
many hundred homes, a wondrous wealth of humanity and 
kindness that will long remain one of the compensating mem- 
ories of a terrible event. 



We tender most sincere thanks to our advertisers for their 
valued support in promptly forwarding us new cuts and copy. 
The response to our telegraphic requests has been splendid 
and the episode will knit closer friendly relations as only mis- 
fortune, when shared and survived, can do. It is our hope to 
exhibit practical appreciation of this support, given when most 
needed, by making the 'Mining and Scientific Press' 
a better paper than it has ever been; and the belief that this 
can be done is strengthened immensely by the fact that the 
members of our staff united to do their duty at a time when 
the sense of personal loss and discomfort was keen. It is a 
saying among the fraternity that a good mine must go 
through the baptism of a law-suit ; few rich mining properties 
have escaped litigation in some form. Assuredly it is true 
that those who work together in an enterprise such as this 
journal, become united in purpose by such an experience as 
the recent unpleasantness, in a manner not to be effected even 
by a life-time of ordinary association. 



In regard to the relation between volcanoes and earth- 
quakes, it is necessary to distinguish between those usually 
minor but frequent tremors, that are a part of eruptive activity 
and those occurrences which take place at a long distance 
from volcanic centers and are related to them only remotely 
by reason of both being manifestations of structural change 
within the crust of the earth. The volcano nearest to San 
Francisco that has been active during the human period is 
probably a cinder cone situated about ten miles from Lassen 



14 AFTER EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE. 

Peak in northern California, 170 miles from San Francisco. 
The forest that was buried by the scoria is still in evidence 
and it is estimated that the eruption took place within the last 
300 years. Other extinct volcanoes are those of Mt. Shasta 
and several in the Kings River district. In the Mohave desert 
there are several perfectly preserved cones, and while they 
were active recently, from a geological standpoint, they be- 
came extinct in the beginning of human history. 



Despite the effort of the Mexican authorities to stifle the 
truth concerning conditions in the Yaqui country, it is evi- 
dent, from a letter that we publish on another page, that this 
part of Sonora is best avoided by mining men who do not 
care about prospecting the last hole of all. Our correspondent 
writes as one who is no tenderfoot, but on the contrary, is 
familiar with mining in Mexico, and he does not give expres- 
sion to such strong statements without full warrant for them. 
The news, last week, of the murder of Samuel Williams, the 
assayer of the Giroux Consolidated Mining Company, and two 
other members of the same party, comes as an unpleasant 
corroboration. The Mexican Government has slowly won 
the goodwill and respect of the United States, and it is hardly 
to be believed that conditions such as exist in Sonora will 
be permitted to continue without investigation, followed by 
correction. In the meanwhile, the authorities on this side of 
the line will do well to attend to their duties. There is a pass 
40 miles west of Nogales through which guns and ammuni- 
tion find their way freely into the lawless region on the other 
side of the line. If one mentions the matter to a citizen of 
Tucson, he lifts his eyes to heaven with ingenuous astonish- 
ment. But such innocence is not in keeping with the air of 
the border, and it should not prevent an inquiry into a nefari- 
ous traffic, which is at the bottom of the atrocities that have 
disgraced the State of Sonora and discredited the government 
of Mexico. 



As seen from Berkeley, twelve miles across the Bay, the 
burning of San Francisco presented a succession of appear- 



EDITORIAL. 15 

ances. Within half an hour after the earthquake shock, a 
hump of dark smoke appeared over the City, growing during 
the succeeding hours until it rose through the quiet air like 
the clouds made by a volcano. When night came, the whole 
front of San Francisco was ablaze, the flames shooting up- 
ward at particular centers with the glowing discharge of a 
blast furnace ; the light of the conflagration illumined the 
heavy clouds of smoke with a pink glow and the occasional 
rumble of a dynamite explosion gave the picture a suggestion 
of warfare. The next day (April 19) the clouds of smoke 
rolled skyward to a height of two miles, their lower layers 
dark, but the topmost billows sunlit and splendid. As eve- 
ning came, a wind from the southwest blew the smoke over 
the Bay toward Mt. Tamalpais ; the sun, like a red ball, threw 
a crimson light over the waters and there was more sugges- 
tion of horror than at any time. That night the big wooden 
houses in the residence portion were burning luridly, so that 
the flames rose high to heaven and glowing clouds pierced 
a starlit sky; the sight was one of desolating splendor. On 
the day following (April 20) the fire had pretty well exhausted 
itself and a dark, murk of drifting smoke hid the ruins of the 
proud city of the Argonauts. But it was a quiet clear day, 
one of California's best; the sun that had set in a mist red 
as blood rose resplendent and full of life-giving promise. 
Already with the unconquered energy of a people that has 
developed a continent, the inhabitants began to talk of the 
re-building that was to give them another and a more beauti- 
ful San Francisco. 



We are profoundly grateful to our friends who by word, 
by letter and by deed, came to our support during a time of 
trial. The response to the telegraphic request for articles 
and material for publication has been such as to prove abun- 
dantly the faith we had in the innate generosity of our people. 
The pages of the 'Mining and Scientific Press' during succeed- 
ing issues will demonstrate who helped and how effectively 
each one did it, by sending contributions of unusual interest. 
The editorial department rarely has dealings with the adver- 



16 AFTER EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE. 

tisers, but during the period of stress that followed the great 
conflagration, we were brought into closer touch with our 
clients on the business side of this enterprise, and it remains 
but to say that the evidence has been simply to prove, what 
we knew already, that men of the highest character and cul- 
ture are now engaged in that essentially modern field of indus- 
trial activity which is termed advertising. Among so many 
proofs of generosity, we yet venture to single out one message 
as typical of a breadth of spirit that does honor to the name 
of American. Mr. G. W. Fuller, who represents the Cameron 
Pump, said to our New York manager: "We want our bills 
to run on just the same as if nothing had happened, even if 
you do not get out a paper for three months. We appreciate 
your effort in your advertiser's behalf and whatever you pub- 
lish, if it has the single word 'Cameron' in it, will be fully 
satisfactory to us for months to come." We are reminded of 
a story told by Dr. Holland, chief of the Carnegie Museum at 
Pittsburg. On a certain pleasant occasion he informed us 
that the white hippopotamus was rare; in fact, there were 
only nine specimens in existence and one more, making the 
tenth, had been consigned to him and was then on the way 
from Africa. Well, we can state emphatically that 'white' 
men are not so scarce as white hippopotami, and as long as 
there are plenty of them, this Earth of ours will be a planet 
pleasant for residence purposes, despite such minor interrup- 
tions as are termed earthquakes. 



It is fitting that we say a few words concerning the city 
that has given us shelter and a temporary place of business. 
At the beginning of the year Berkeley was a place of 40,000 
inhabitants, the center of its life being the State University, 
whose beautiful oak glades and sloping lawns reach from the 
post-office to the foot of the Contra Costa hills. The group 
of buildings, of which three are of recent construction and 
one — the mining building — not yet finished, were uninjured by 
the earthquake and still stand in quiet repose facing the 
Golden Gate. Berkeley has always been a place of homes, 
beginning with the professors, instructors and students of 



a? q 

s 

5 

0Q 




18 AFTER EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE. 

the University itself, and followed by a number of professional 
and business men who had offices across the Bay in San 
Francisco. The facilities for going from the home to the office 
have been much improved during recent years, there being a 
double service, namely, the old suburban train and ferry 
service of the Southern Pacific Railroad and the new trolley 
line and ferries of the Key Route. The convenience of living 
in a beautiful town situated on rising ground, overlooking 
the Bay, led to a great increase in the number of residents as 
soon as access to the City became easy. Now, of course, there 
will be a rapid accession in population and much of the busi- 
ness of San Francisco will take root here. Some of this will 
return to its former site when the City is rebuilt, but some of 
it will remain at Berkeley. While the Southern Pacific and 
the Santa Fe railroads both pass through the lower part of 
the town, the former has no station and the latter, one that is 
not much used, but it is certain that recent events will lead to 
an immediate improvement in this regard. The accompany- 
ing map shows the position of the cities that have grown up 
around the Bay of San Francisco. At the beginning of 1906 
the metropolis had a population of 400,000; Oakland came 
next with 90,000; Berkeley, 40,000; and Alameda, 20,000. 
Los Angeles, in the southern part of the State, has a popula- 
tion of 200,000, so that Berkeley is the fourth in size. It was 
named after Bishop Berkeley, to whom is credited the say- 
ing: "Westward the path of Empire takes its way." It was 
Charles Kingsley, in 'Westward Ho' who originated the say- 
ing, but whoever said it, the town of Berkeley is one of those 
that fulfilled it. 




Map of the Bay of San Francisco. 
Dotted Line Indicates the Earthquake Fault. 



THE EARTHQUAKE. 

An experience such as that undergone a few hours ago by 
those who dwell on the shores of the Bay of San Francisco 
is apt to emphasize the fact that the earth we live on is still 
undergoing structural readjustment. At such times — or a 
little afterward, when chimneys have ceased falling and we 
have gathered wits somewhat perturbed by the unfamiliar 
sensations — we realize why the Greeks looked upon the Earth 
as a sentient being; the philosophers of the ancient world 
dwelt beside the Mediterranean, which from time immemorial 
has been the theatre of earthquakes, volcanoes and other 
manifestations of terrestrial unrest. It needs less poetry than 
fright to suggest the idea that, like a giant disturbed, old 
Earth is shaking himself awake, growling the while. As we 
write, at Berkeley, nearly four hours afterward, the clock, 
shaken to a standstill, marks 5.14 as the moment of the most 
severe shock. Across the Bay huge clouds of smoke, sunlit 
at the top like a splendid cumulus, indicate that San Francisco 
is afire. As we conjecture what may have happened there 
come two short shocks accompanied by a rumble; the tremor, 
but not the sound, being such as would be caused by a blast 
in a stope three or four hundred feet underground. A mine- 
blast makes a click, not a rumble, when heard at a distance. 
Meanwhile, like a severely critical building-inspector, Mr. 
Earthquake has broken every poorly constructed chimney 
and in our neighborhood the brick towers of a public institu- 
tion have been shaken, one tower tumbling to the ground, 
while another has collapsed. People talk excitedly and com- 
pare experiences, the birds chatter in a flurried way and there 
is a general air of tension. But the sunlight is steady and 
warm, as if old Sol was too far away to be bothered by hap- 
penings on such a minor planet as ours. 

Earthquakes may happen anywhere, they are not neces- 
sarily connected with volcanic eruptions and they are not con- 
fined to rocks of any particular age or character. It is true, 
however, that the agitation takes the form of waves the ampli- 
tude of which is increased when transmitted through yield- 



THE EARTHQUAKE. 21 

ing rock. Thus the Charleston disaster, in 1886, was intensi- 
fied by the fact that the Southern city stands upon sand and 
other deposits soft enough to propagate vibrations. Several 
observers at Charleston watched waves as much as a foot 
high run across the surface and these were met by another 
series going in an opposite direction, making complex move- 
ments which tended to loosen first one wall of a building and 
then another. Of 14,000 chimneys, not one hundred remained 
intact, but the number of fatalities was small, although the 
damage to property was estimated at five to six million dol- 
lars. But the worst catastrophe of the kind was that which 
befell Lisbon on November 1, 1755. This remains one of the 
great horrors of history. For several years preceding, the 
volcanoes of the Mediterranean had broken out with unusual 
violence and earthquakes had passed throughout Europe, 
without serious effect. Early in 1755 they became more fre- 
quent and on the night of October 31, Lisbon felt a slight 
shock. The next morning three severe vibrations were felt, 
the first of which lasted only six seconds but quite long 
enough to throw down practically every building in the city; 
Lisbon became a stone quarry. Shortly afterward there came 
a great sea wave and as it rolled toward the land, a huge fis- 
sure opened along the sea-front, engulfing a new marble dock 
which happened to be crowded with people who had rushed 
from under the falling houses to secure safety. They, the 
quay, and the boats moored to it all disappeared from view; 
the bottom of the bay was traversed by a chasm which closed 
over them, leaving no vestige behind. At a later date, sound- 
ings were made and these proved that there was 600 feet of 
water where once the quay had stood. Fires broke out in 
the city and destroyed what was left of it. It is estimated 
that 50,000 perished. 

Charleston and Lisbon are occurrences concerning which 
we have reliable data, but the old records tell of many such 
catastrophes throughout human history. Antioch, though an 
inland city, has been the scene of an extraordinary repetition 
of earthquakes, the first recorded being that of 148 B. C. and 
the last in 1822. No place is immune from them and though 
they are common in volcanic regions, they may happen — pos- 



22 AFTER EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE. 

sibly, from a different cause — in localities far removed from 
evident terrestrial disturbance. 

To the miner they serve as an object lesson to bring home 
the fact that the faults and other ruptures which he sees 
underground, breaking his vein or dislocating his pay-streak, 
are due to causes which have not entirely ceased to exist. The 
earth is still proceeding through its cycle of change, and if the 
outward and visible signs of unrest appear to be infrequent, it 
is only because the duration of a man's life is so brief when 
compared to the time occupied in producing these geological 
effects, that he is apt to be unaware of them. The shocks felt 
by us today probably register a break in the earth's crust at 
some point — geologically — not far distant and the numerous 
minor tremors indicate a readjustment after the first break, 
which may be the culmination of a long period of strain 
among the strata above which our homes happen to be built. 
The earth in cooling is steadily shrinking and, like the skin 
of a dried apple, the outer rocky crust is contorted to the 
point of cracking, as it gradually adapts itself to a smaller 
interior. As the thickness of rock is ruptured, one side drop- 
ping relatively to the other, there is a shock which pulses 
through the overlying strata and reaches the surface in the 
form of earth-waves that prove too much for the structures 
built by man on the assumption of perpetual stability. 

No part of the earth is safe from earthquakes; the place 
most free from tremors may be the scene of a shock the more 
severe for having a cumulative energy. The cause of these 
is only surmised, as due to a rupture within the crust, but the 
effects have been investigated and the movements measured 
so well as to indicate the center of the earth pulsation to be 
far beneath the surface. In the Charleston case, the shocks 
came from eight and twelve miles deep. 

While volcanoes and earthquakes are manifestations that 
probably have a common origin in this shifting of the rocky 
integument of the planet we inhabit, it does not appear that 
earthquakes are necessarily and immediately associated with 
eruptive activity. The disasters at Charleston, in 1886; in the 
Mississippi Valley, between 1810 and 1813; at Antioch, on 
many occasions; and even at Lisbon, in 1755, all occurred at 



THE EARTHQUAKE. 23 

places several hundred miles distant from any volcanic vent. 
The active volcanoes nearest to San Francisco are those in 
Alaska. 

In volcanic countries — in Central America, in New Zealand 
and in southern Europe — earth tremors are so frequent that 
the inhabitants have grown accustomed to them. The 'tremb- 
lors' preceding and accompanying a volcanic eruption take 
place at a comparatively shallow depth and they can be better 
diagnosed. An up-welling mass of lava, on reaching the 
ground-water, will provoke shocks, because the molten rock 
turns the water into superheated steam, which expands with 
explosive violence when it penetrates cavities underground; 
moreover the emanation of lava through a vent — frequently 
the crater of a volcano — will eventually leave a cavernous 
space which by the collapse of the overlying rock produces a 
settlement of the surface accompanied by vibrations, much in 
the same way, though on a different scale, as when the hang- 
ing wall of a stope falls in. 

The relation between water and volcanic eruptions is one 
that is variously explained. The fact that volcanoes are found 
either near the sea or actually rising through the ocean floor, 
led to the theory that eruptive action is due to the penetra- 
tion of sea water into cracks communicating with the molten 
rock, which, either as a sub-stratum or in isolated reservoirs, 
exists underneath the cold crust of the earth. The water was 
supposed to undergo tremendous expansion leading to vio- 
lent escape, through vents which afterward allowed of an exit 
for the lava itself. But the best geological opinion holds now- 
adays that the volcanoes made the water, just as much as the 
water the volcanoes. The ocean marks an area of sedimenta- 
tion, over which the detritus, worn away from the land and 
carried down by the rivers, is deposited. This accumulation 
of sediment proceeds until the thickness of material is meas- 
ured by miles and until the pressure on the lower layers 
becomes so intense as to force out the water imprisoned in 
them. This water was carried down with the particles of sand 
and silt as they fell to the ocean floor and constitutes one- 
twentieth to one-fifth of the consolidated material. The suc- 
cessive layers present an impervious structure to the direct 



24 AFTER EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE. 

ascent of the water when it comes within the deep zone of 
high pressure and high temperature, so that an outlet is 
sought along the edge of the area of sedimentation, namely, 
along the rim of the oceanic basins. Hence centers of erup- 
tion become established along the coast. 



The above notes dealing with the geologic causes under- 
lying earthquakes, were written before there was any knowl- 
edge of the conflagration that was to destroy San Francisco. 
As the train and ferry service stopped early that morning, the 
writer employed the time of anxious waiting to prepare some 
notes, not anticipating any such catastrophe as supervened. 
The earthquake itself, which was destructive enough to all 
save wooden houses or a few of the most scientifically-built 
steel structures in the City, was also a cause for terror at 
Berkeley, but it damaged seriously only a few buildings. The 
vibration seemed to lessen eastward, so that Berkeley felt it 
less than Oakland, and Oakland less than the City itself or 
the minor towns on the San Francisco peninsula. In the red- 
wood frame dwellings at Berkeley, one woke up suddenly on 
that fateful Wednesday morning to find the house shaking, 
amid violent creaking and cracking, so loud as to drown the 
crash of falling chimneys. Recognizing that it was an earth- 
quake, one expected it to cease every moment, but after a 
movement of less violence, the horrible shaking began again, 
with greater intensity, until it seemed that the house must 
collapse bodily. To those who were unwilling observers of 
the phenomenon, it seemed as if the house were being shaken 
much as a terrier shakes a rat, with a final wrench that prom- 
ised to make an end — but it was succeeded by a gradual de- 
crease of the vibration. This feeling of a wrench, that is, of 
torsional strain, was emphasized in some of the taller build- 
ings and it was due probably to the crossing of two sets of 
vibrations. In regard to other evidence, it is too early to 
collect accurate data. In San Francisco the street-car tracks 
on Market street retained their alignment fairly well, but the 
roadway was depressed fully four feet. Market street is paved 
with cobbles; where there was an asphalt pavement in the 
lower parts of town below Montgomery street, the roadway 



25 AFTER EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE. 

was buckled so as to make tents, and in other spots there were 
depressions several feet below the normal level. Southward, 
along the San Francisco peninsula, the shock was particu- 
larly severe and, it is stated, actual fissures, five to seven feet 
wide, traversed the surface of the ground. Palo Alto felt this 
and, in consequence, the buildings of Stanford University 
succumbed. When a scientific investigation is made, as it 
should be made, either by the State or the proper department 
of the National Government, it will be found, we believe, that 
one fact stands out prominently, namely, that the earthquake 
was destructive in the City mainly from Montgomery street 
down — eastward — to the water-front. This area is 'made 
land'; the original shore followed an irregular line that coin- 
cides roughly with Montgomery street. By means of piles 
and filling, the City has encroached upon the shallows of the 
Bay. Visitors to San Francisco will have noticed how irregu- 
lar was the level of the side-walk along the lower part of 
Market street; the pedestrian found the pavement three or 
four feet higher in front of one building than it was in front 
of the next. This was due to the City ordinance whereby the 
side-walk had been raised (to be followed later by a similar 
elevation of the level of the roadway) so as to secure greater 
depth for sewers, until they were below the basement floors. 
Many supposed that these irregularities marked the subsi- 
dence of the older buildings, but it was not so, as explained 
There was plenty of evidence, however, among the older and 
poorly constructed buildings, of subsidence, but the irregular 
side-walk was no part of this testimony. The structures 
erected on plank were, in several cases, out of the perpendicu- 
lar and others had sunk, while those built properly on piles 
were all right. The original fill was made of all sorts of stuff 
that was deposited to a depth of about ten feet upon the blue 
mud of the Bay, under which there is a layer of gray sand, 
seven to eight feet thick and very tenacious. This is suc- 
ceeded by more mud. The piles not reaching hard-pan are 
gripped by such material so that in many cases it would be 
difficult to budge them with a two-ton hammer a month after 
driving. In the best practice, piles 70 feet long are used 
wherever hard-pan cannot be reached; this means a depth of 



THE EARTHQUAKE. 2/ 

75 to 80 feet below the street, because it is necessary to get 
below the level of the tide. After the sea-wall of the new 
ferry building was made, the ground tended to shift less and 
it seemed that eventually it would become stationary, for the 
wall hindered the tide in penetrating the filling and placed 
an obstacle to creeping. The sea-wall made tidal action slug- 
gish within this 'made land,' and this did not affect the piles 
which still remained under water, but it did permit the plank 
to dry and therefore to rot, so that buildings on plank founda- 
tions have been sinking during recent years. This part of 
San Francisco felt the earthquake severely and in this respect 
the evidence agrees with that of Charleston. Similarly — al- 
though here the distance from the center of disturbance may 
be a factor — the lower alluvial flats of Oakland and Berkeley 
were seriously disturbed, while the parts of those cities that 
spread over the solid ground at the base of the Contra Costa 
hills felt the shock only slightly. It is apparent that the earth- 
wave caused by the rupture far below the surface, is propa- 
gated intensely in sand, alluvium, filling, made ground, or any 
other unfirm material. Build your house on a rock — or as 
near it as convenient — and if you find it necessary to live or 
to do business on yielding ground, see to it that the best 
engineering skill is employed, to the end that any natural 
obstacles may be surmounted by the application of scientific 
knowledge in construction. 



Since the above was written we have been favored with 
Professor Leuschner's description of the records obtained by 
the seismograph. He also was prevented from going to the 
City on that Wednesday morning, although his anxiety to do 
so can be measured by the fact that his wife was there, having 
been to the opera the night before and remaining with rela- 
tives until the next day. During the interval, before he could 
offer help to those on the other side, as he did most effectively 
later in the day, this scientific man busied himself with col- 
lecting data and making observations on the phenomena con- 
nected with the earthquake. It is interesting to note his quo- 
tation from the report on the earthquake of 1868. This, of 
course, we had not seen, when we made the remarks in a pre- 



28 AFTER EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE. 

ceding paragraph and similarly Mr. Leuschner knew nothing 
of the damage done to buildings upon the filling below Mont- 
gomery street when he also referred to the danger incurred 
by structures erected on ground of this nature. There is 
room for comment here on the short memories of humankind. 
Here was an authority — E. S. Holden — who reported on the 
last serious earthquake forty years ago, and emphasized the 
danger of building "on the made land between Montgomery 
street and the Bay." Nevertheless, during the years since that 
report was published, people have continued to build there in 
disregard of the evidence that it was dangerous to do so 
without taking proper precautions. We emphasize these last 
four words, because as yet the evidence all goes to show that 
the greatest damage was done to buildmgs badly built or 
constructed on designs that ignored the principles of sound 
engineering. The amount of dishonest construction that es- 
capes undetected in a big city is appalling and it is this that 
the earthquake, like a relentless inspector, exposes. 

In this way the calamitous effects are a visitation or pun- 
ishment for wrong-doing and if only those who were respon- 
sible were punished, there would be nothing to say. Speaking 
of a catastrophe such as this as a punishment, reminds one 
that in days gone-by the earthquake and conflagration that 
have destroyed San Francisco would have been hailed as an 
act of God designed to wipe out a wicked and sinful commu- 
nity. While our people may be in a contrite mind and far 
from haughty at this time of disaster, they look upon the 
event as due to natural causes, the scientific reason for which 
they surmise vaguely. It is extraordinary to notice how much 
an elementary knowledge of geology has spread and how 
such knowledge has prevented the prevalence of superstitious 
fear or hysteric collapse. Whatever views people may hold 
regarding the general direction of the affairs of this Universe, 
even the most orthodox nowadays impute an earthquake to 
natural causes and this fact gives them a courage in adversity 
such as the ignorant and superstitious can rarely possess. 
Meanwhile, whatever little knowledge men may possess, con- 
cerning the methods of the Great Architect of the Universe, 
is not incompatible with gratitude for preservation from a 
great peril and with hope for the future. 



THE EARTHQUAKE COMMISSION. 

The Governor of California, with the approval of the 
National Government, has appointed a commission to make a 
scientific enquiry into the effects of the recent occurrence. 
The commission includes A. C. Lawson and A. O. Leuschner 
of the University of California, G. K. Gilbert and Fielding 
Reid of the U. S. Geological Survey, John C. Branner of 
Stanford University, George Davidson, Charles Burkhalter 
and W. W. Campbell. 

The commission met at the University of California on 
April 24. Professor A. C. Lawson was elected Chairman, and 
Professor A. O. Leuschner, Secretary. After a general dis- 
cussion of the scope of the work to be undertaken, it was 
decided, in view of the alarming reports which had been cir- 
culated, to issue a statement to the effect: 

1. That the times of earthquakes cannot be predicted, and 
that any predictions such as have been current during the last 
few days are unwarranted. 

2. That severe earthquakes are generally followed by a 
number of minor shocks extending over several days or even 
weeks. 

3. That the physiographic conditions in the Bay region 
are such as to preclude any serious damage from earthquake 
waves, popularly called tidal waves. 

At its session next day, the commission prepared the follow- 
ing request for the transmission to it of any observations made 
by those who happened to be within the area of disturbance: 

It is of importance that the citizens of the State of California 
co-operate with the State Earthquake Commission in its inves- 
tigation of the recent seismic disturbance. For this purpose 
it is essential that the Commission receive, as soon as possible, 
information on any or all of the topics outlined below. All 
communications should be addressed to the State Earthquake 
Commission, University of California, Berkeley, California. 

Give information on the following: 

1. Post Office address; town, county, and State. 



30 AFTER EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE. 

2. Place and date of observation. 

3. Name and address of the observer, if other than the 
writer. 

4. Give estimate of the intensity of the earthquake on the 
Rossi-Forel Scale. The Rossi-Forel Scale as amended by the 
Commission is as follows: 

I. Perceptible only by delicate instruments. 

II. Very slight shocks noticed by few persons at rest. 

III. Slight shock, of which duration and direction was 
noted by a number of persons. 

IV. Moderate shock, reported by persons in motion; shak- 
ing of movable objects; cracking of ceilings. 

V. Smart shock generally felt; furniture shaken; some 
clocks stopped; some sleepers awakened. 

VI. Severe shock, general awakening of sleepers; stopping 
of clocks ; some window glass broken. 

VII. Violent shock, overturning of loose objects; falling 
of plaster; striking of church bells; some chimneys fall. 

VIII. Fall of chimneys ; cracks in the walls of buildings. 

IX. Partial or total destruction of some buildings. 

X. Great disasters; overturning of rocks; fissures in the 
surface of the earth; mountain slides. 

5. Give any facts that you can as to the directions the 
Earthquake Waves seemed to travel. Describe the character 
of the shock, whether a tremblor or an oscillatory motion, etc., 
and whether you yourself or others had any clear impression 
as to the direction in which it was moving, the facts on which 
this impression was based and whether people agreed as to 
the direction. 

6. Give also any further particulars of interest, whether 
they are from observation or hearsay. If any changes oc- 
curred in the ground, such as depressions or elevations of the 
surface, fissures, emissions of sand or water, describe them 
fully. Character of damage to buildings. General direction 
in which walls, chimneys and columns in cemeteries were 
overthrown. Springs, wells and rivers are often notably 
affected, even by slight shocks, and any information in regard 
to such changes will be valuable. 



THE EARTHQUAKE COMMISSION. 31 

7. State as exactly as possible the time of commencement 
and the duration of each shock. 

The exact time of the beginning of a shock (to the nearest 
second), one of the most important of all observations, is 
difficult to get correctly, because of the great velocity with 
which the wave travels, and because the watch or clock must 
be immediately compared with a clock known to be keeping 
standard time. If several hours have elapsed before the com- 
paring is made, another comparison should be made an hour 
later, in order to find whether your timepiece is gaining or 
losing. The observation cannot be regarded as a good one, 
unless it is stated that this has been done. Telegraph opera- 
tors, railroad officials, watchmakers, etc., have especially good 
opportunities for answering this question correctly, and their 
co-operation is most earnestly solicited. 

If a clock was stopped, give the exact time it indicated (and 
anything known, as how fast or how slow it was), its position, 
the direction in which it was facing, and the length of the 
pendulum. 

8. If the shock was not felt in your neighborhood, although 
noticed at places not very far distant, do not fail to answer 
the first four questions, as negative reports are of great inter- 
est in defining the limits of the disturbed area, etc. State also 
the nearest point to your station where the shock was felt. 

9. Name of writer. 

Note. — In replying to these questions, they need not be 
repeated; but the answers should be numbered to correspond 
to the questions. 

[We trust that any of our readers that can help the cause 
of science and the safety of our people, by transmitting such 
data as are requested by the Commission, will do so at once,, 
while their memory is fresh. — Editor.] 



THE CAUSE AND NATURE OF EARTHQUAKES 

By G. K. Gilbert, 
United States Geological Survey. 

The scientific study of earthquakes has made great progress 
in the last few decades. On one hand there is substantial 
agreement among geologists as to the ways in which they 
originate, and on the other there is agreement among physi- 
cists as to the nature of the vibrations. 

Earthquakes have two general sources. One group, known 
as tectonic are by-products of the subterranean forces and 
processes which make mountains and elevate and depress 
portions of the earth's surface. The other group, known as 
volcanic, are by-products of the movement of lavas from below 
upward. The tectonic are far the more numerous, and include 
all the important earthquakes that have been recorded in the 
United States. 

In the formation of mountains and other great features of 
the earth, the rock masses are forced into new shapes. They 
are pulled, pushed, twisted and bent; so that strata, for ex- 
ample, which were originally flat, become inclined and curved. 
If the changes are sufficiently slow, the component particles of 
the rock readjust themselves gradually; but if the changes 
are comparatively rapid, the rocks are broken. Before frac- 
ture occurs there is elastic yielding, or 'strain'; that is, the 
rock is compressed or stretched or bent somewhat like a 
spring; and when its strength is at last overcome the dis- 
severed parts recoil. This recoil is instantaneous, violent and 
powerful, and is of the nature of a jar. The jar is communi- 
cated to the surrounding rock, and is passed on from particle 
to particle in all directions. Each particle is moved from its 
original position and returns again, thus making an oscillation. 
Some conception of what takes place may be derived from the 
dropping of a pebble on the smooth surface of a pond. A 
wave is started which travels outward over the surface in all 
directions, so that at any instant it has the form of a circle. 



CAUSE AND NATURE OF EARTHQUAKES. 33 

The motion within the earth is also called a wave — an elastic 
wave — but it travels up and down as well as horizontally and 
its form at any instant, instead of being circular, is spherical. 
Wherever this expanding sphere reaches the surface of the 
earth, there is an earthquake. 

Volcanic earthquakes also are the surface manifestations 
of elastic waves, and many of them originate in the breaking 
of rock masses, but the initial jar is also given by explosions, 
and sometimes by the falling in of cavern roofs. 

The fracture producing a tectonic earthquake may be a 
mere parting of the rock, but usually there is slipping along 
the fracture, constituting a fault. Some of the faults making 
earthquakes are visible at the surface. The Inyo county 
earthquake in 1872 was associated with a dislocation of sev- 
eral feet which can still be seen along the western margin of 
Owens valley. The greater number of fractures are not 
visible, but occur miles below the surface. The depth of the 
origin of the Charleston earthquake was estimated at 12 
miles. 

The fracture may be horizontal, or vertical or inclined, 
straight or curved. It may be miles in extent. It is not all 
made in the same instant but progressively, so that seconds or 
minutes may be consumed. The initial jar is thus distributed 
through space and time, with the result that the earthquake 
involves a very complicated movement. Some of the remoter 
readjustments appear also to consume much time, so that 
minor fractures take place at intervals after the main fracture 
— or, at least, that seems a rational interpretation of the fact 
that an important earthquake is followed by a long series of 
minor shocks and tremors. 

An earthquake is complex in yet another way. Elastic 
waves are of two kinds. In one kind the to-and-fro move- 
ment of the particles agrees in direction with the progress of 
the wave; in the other kind the particles move in a direction 
at right angles to the direction of wave progress. Every earth 
fracture starts both longitudinal and transverse waves, and 
the two kinds are started together, but it happens that they 
travel at different rates, so that at a distance from the origin 



34 



AFTER EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE. 



a single initial jar may be represented by two distinct shocks. 
The behavior of the two waves is also qualified in an import- 
ant way by the material traversed. The longitudinal wave 
may be transmitted by both solids and fluids, the transverse 
by elastic solids only. When a transverse wave encounters 
loose, incoherent material, such as sand, and especially when 
it meets wet alluvium, is transformed into a wave of a different 
character, analogous to the surface waves of a body of water. 
It becomes visible as a surface undulation, its rate of progress 
is reduced, and its amplitude, or the space through which the 
particle moves, is greatly increased. It is for this reason that 
earthquakes are peculiarly destructive on alluvial lands. 




Getting a Drink. 



SOME LESSONS FROM THE EARTHQUAKE. 

By S. B. Christy, 
Dean of the College of Mines, University of California. 

San Francisco, dear to the miners of '49, has been destroyed 
by fire many times before, but each time has sprung again to 
life more vigorous and beautiful than ever. 

San Francisco, dear to the miners of today, has just passed 
through a new baptism of fire, but already she is shaking her- 
self free from the ashes that cover her and will again hold 
the proud place she has won for herself more strongly, more 
grandly than ever. There is no fear for her future. The 
most permanent of human institutions are the great commer- 
cial centers. These are marked by Nature herself and nothing 
but the destruction of her noble harbor can prevent San 
Francisco from remaining the natural gateway for the com- 
merce of the Pacific. 

As the fires die out and the smoke clears away, some lessons 
of this great event stand out so boldly that it behooves us to 
profit by them for the future. In the first place, it is certain 
that with good foundations, good designs and honest work- 
manship, the earthquake damage in San Francisco would 
have been as it was in Berkeley, merely nominal. It was poor 
design and construction that caused the losses. Buildings that 
stood on a sound foundation and were wisely planned and 
honestly constructed were practically unscathed by the earth- 
quake. At the University of California, which stood upon the 
solid ground of the Berkeley hills, the seismograph showed 
an earth movement of about half an inch. But although actual 
records are missing there is no doubt that in alluvial soil, loose 
wet sand, mud, and other loose materials such as covered the 
lower parts of San Francisco, the earth motion was greater 
and probably of a different nature from the vibrations in solid 
rock. Nevertheless there stand in San Francisco, on made 
land along the water-front, a number of buildings upon deep 
pile foundations that suffered very little from the earthquake. 
There is no doubt that the modern steel-frame construction, 
when properly placed on a sufficient foundation and wisely 
planned and honestly built, is practically safe from earthquake 
shocks. 



36 AFTER EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE. 

San Francisco contained a number of old fashioned struc- 
tures, many hurriedly and cheaply built on insecure founda- 
tions; these were known to be unsafe and should have been 
condemned long ago. I saw many "concrete foundations" 
that had a shell of cement half an inch thick on the outside 
that were filled inside with loose sand. It is no wonder these 
gave way and undermined the structures they did not sup- 
port. The earthquake was a stern exposer of sham and it 
ruthlessly searched out the work of ignorance, cupidity and 
graft. The City Hall had long been known as such a struc- 
ture and it was seriously injured by the shock. But at the 
University of California, at Berkeley, the California Hall, and 
the Hearst Memorial Mining Building, designed and erected 
by the University architect, Mr. John Galen Howard, came 
out without a blemish. The total damage to all the build- 
ings of the University of California (chiefly chimneys) can 
be covered by the sum of five hundred dollars. 

In San Francisco the wide-spread ruin came from the fire. 
This too can be avoided in the future, if the lessons of this 
disaster are wisely utilized. Some of these causes of disaster 
exist in all modern towns and the like may happen anywhere. 
Modern cities are too much centralized; just as was the case 
in San Francisco. The electric power and light, the water 
and gas services were all at once disorganized. Telephone and 
telegraph lines failed to work at the time they were needed 
most. Numerous stations for wireless telegraphy should be 
established by every large city to meet just such contingencies. 

The paralysis of the power plants stopped street-car service, 
both cable and electric, while the old horse-cars would still 
have been effective. The automobile service during the fire 
proved to be of incalculable value. With street-cars idle, 
telephones down, the automobiles went everywhere. They 
carried messages, wounded, supplies, dynamite — anything with 
certainty and dispatch. 

The shoddy construction of the cheap flats and tenement 
houses south of Market street started fires all over this terri- 
tory; and as the water supply was centralized, an accident to 
a part crippled the whole. As it was impossible to fight fire. 



SOME LESSONS FROM THE EARTHQUAKE. 



37 



without water, the fire spread more and more until it had 
eaten up three-fourths of the city. The wreck of the water 
supply was another example of the excessive centralization of 
modern cities. Many square miles of buildings were destroyed 
simply because they depended on the general water supply 
which failed; but the United States Mint, though surrounded 
by fire, was saved, partly because it was honestly constructed, 
but also because it had its own artesian well for fire protection 
and an independent steam-pumping plant. If all other large 




Car-tracks on East Street, near the Ferry, 
buildings had been similarly equipped, the fire might easily 
have been checked. 

In the absence of water, dynamite was resorted to. This 
was very effectively used by the army engineers, but many 
others who handled it did not know how to apply it effectively 
and only spread the fire. Often when it was used, it was 
employed too timidly and was resorted to when it was too 
late. If the blocks in Chinatown between Kearny and Stock- 
ton had been promptly blown down Wednesday afternoon the 



38 AFTER EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE. 

entire residence district of the Western Addition might have 
been saved. A hundred California miners used to handling 
dynamite could have saved three-fourths of the burned district 
by intelligent and prompt blasting. 

It was fortunate that the military and naval posts were 
so near, so numerous, and so efficient. The value of military 
discipline in an emergency was never more strongly demon- 
strated. It is difficult to imagine what would have happened 
in San Francisco during the dreadful nights that followed the 
fire, if it had not been for the presence of the regular troops. 
With a firm hand anarchy was suppressed every time it 
showed its head. Many a family owes its safety to the boys 
in blue. The militia and the cadets of the University of Cali- 
fornia also rendered very valuable service in protecting the 
lives and property of the citizens of San Francisco, Oakland 
and Berkeley. What these bodies lacked in experience was 
more than made good by superior intelligence and good-will. 
The University boys, under the able leadership of Captain 
Nance of the regular army, were hailed with cheers by the 
people as they marched to their stations, and petitions were 
circulated among the residents to protest against their removal 
when they were called back to Berkeley. 

It would be a fatal mistake to rebuild on the old plan. 
San Francisco has a site of rare beauty. The Seven Hills of 
Rome are no more picturesque than hers. But the ugly 
streets which ascend the steep hillsides should be replaced by 
streets that closely follow the contours, on an easy grade, 
and the higher portion of the city should be laid out in ter- 
races. The lower and flatter portion should be laid out in fire- 
districts covering not more than 160 acres each. These fire- 
districts should be separated from each other by broad boule- 
vards fully as wide as Van Ness avenue; and at each corner 
of every fire-district should be a park covering at least one 
block; so that at the corners of each of these fire-districts 
there would be a park four blocks in area, serving as breathing 
places under ordinary conditions and as places of refuge in 
times of conflagration. 

The space under the side-walks should be no longer en- 



SOME LESSONS FROM THE EARTHQUAKE. 39 

croached upon by property owners, but should be open to 
tunnel-ways belonging to the city, for the reception of sewer, 
water and gas pipes, and for electric power and telephone 
lines, and should be under the control of the city government. 
This would make possible the constant inspection, repair, 
and a maintenance of these important arteries of the city's life, 
and would facilitate the easy distribution of power to the 
various residence and business centers; and would avoid 
forever the constant tearing up of the streets which has 
caused the destruction of the sewer and water lines by the 
earthquake. 

Each fire-district should have its own independent source 
of water and power, so that its total destruction could not 
cripple the rest of the city. In the flatter portions devoted to 
business and manufacturing interests there exists an adequate 
supply of water easily reached for fire protection by artesian 
wells, and each large building should be forced to provide 
itself with such a supply, with proper fire service worked by 
an independent steam-pumping plant that would be available 
in cases of general conflagration. In the fire-districts and 
the hilly portions of the land there should be reservoirs always 
kept full of sea-water which can be easily supplied by properly 
distributed pumping stations. This could be utilized for flush- 
ing the sewers, for bathing as well as fire protection. These 
systems of water supply should be independent of the supply 
of drinking water. 

The police, the military, and the fire departments ought 
to organize an efficient automobile service with numerous 
garage stations, supplied with small supplies of gasoline, 
which, with other inflammable substances, should be kept in 
underground chambers. 

San Francisco should appoint a competent commission of 
architects and engineers to study, with the greatest care, 
the effects of the earthquake and the fire upon buildings 
having different types of foundations and modes of construc- 
tion. This should be done at once, and a prompt and thorough 
investigation should be published immediately for the use of 
those who are intending to rebuild the new city, and the most 



40 AFTER EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE. 

stringent laws should be passed controlling the types of 
construction that shall go up in the new San Francisco. Every 
large building should be supplied with an underground vault 
similar to those of the banks for the protection of records and 
plans. Blue-prints of all the power lines, pipe lines, and 
sewers ought to be stored in such fire-proof vaults in more 
than one place. The wisdom of this procedure is demon- 
strated by the fact that such copies as were on file in the 
University Library at Berkeley have proved of great service. 
The value of large areas of park land, such as Golden Gate 
Park, the Panhandle, and the Presidio, has been clearly dem- 
onstrated. These areas should be increased rather than dim- 
inished. The Burnham plans certainly ought to be made the 
basis of the new city, although some changes may possibly 
now be made with advantage which were not possible before 
the fire. 

These measures are absolutely necessary for the safety from 
destruction by fire, and while it might not be possible to 
condemn property for public use for the purpose of beautify- 
ing the city, it certainly is justifiable to do so as a measure of 
public safety, and it ought to be done intelligently and 
promptly. The success of a properly devised system of assess- 
ment of damages and benefits resulting from such changes 
was clearly shown at Baltimore. No city ever had an oppor- 
tunity so great as San Francisco has at the present moment 
for utilizing the ideas of modern science and engineering skill. 

No one who shared the terrors and uncertainties of the 
dreadful days and nights of the fire can have failed to be 
impressed by the noble courage of the men and women who 
suffered from the disaster. They met the dangers and ac- 
cepted the losses with a courage worthy of the descendants of 
the men of '49. No one who witnessed these scenes can have 
any doubt as to the great future of San Francisco. 



THE EARTHQUAKE. 

By A. O. Leuschner, 
Director of the Students' Observatory, University of California. 

An earthquake eclipsing in severity even that of October 
21, 1868, occurred in San Francisco and the surrounding region 
early this morning. The earthquake came suddenly, without 
preliminary vibrations. The intensity of the first shock put 
the sensitive Ewing seismograph, of the Students' Observatory 
of the University of California at Berkeley, out of action, but a 
fairly complete record was obtained with the duplex instru- 
ment, of which the following is a preliminary account. The 
best record of the beginning of the heaviest shocks is fur- 
nished by the Standard clock of the Observatory which 
stopped at 5 hours, 12 minutes, 38 seconds Pacific Standard 
Time, while less severe shocks were recorded by Mr. S. 
Albrecht some 35 seconds earlier. The principal part of the 
earthquake came in two sections, the first series of vibrations 
lasting for about 40 seconds. The vibrations diminished con- 
siderably during the following ten seconds and then continued 
with renewed vigor for about 25 seconds more. But even at 
this writing, about 12 m., the disturbance has not as yet sub- 
sided, as slight shocks are being recorded at frequent intervals 
on the Ewing seismograph, which has been restored to work- 
ing order. The principal direction of motion was from SSE 
to NNW. The remarkable feature of this earthquake, aside 
from its intensity, was its rotary motion. As seen from the 
record, the sum total of all displacements represents a very 
regular ellipse and some of the lines representing the earth's 
motion can be traced along the whole circumference. 

The three severest earthquakes on record in this vicinity 
are those of October 21, 1868; March 30, 1898, and that of 
today. From their records an important conclusion may be 
drawn, which may be of value in constructing buildings in 
the future so as to guard as far as possible against destruc- 
tion. The result of observation indicates that our heaviest 
shocks are in the direction SSE to NNW. In that respect 



42 AFTER EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE. 

the records of the three heaviest earthquakes agree entirely. 
But they have several other features in common. One of 
these is that while the displacements are large, the vibration 
period is comparatively slow, amounting to about one second 
in the last two big earthquakes. If today's shocks, as felt at 
Berkeley, had been instantaneous, inestimably more havoc 
would have been wrought among all kinds of buildings. The 
slowness of the vibration is the only redeeming feature in 
these calamities. The following account of the earthquake of 
October 21, 1868, as experienced in San Francisco, is taken 
from Professor E. S. Holden's 'Catalogue of Earthquakes, 
1769 to 1897,' and will serve to show the features it had in 
common with that of today. "The first shock was 7 h. 53^ m. 
a. m. Its direction was northerly and southerly. Its dura- 
tion was 42 seconds. The second shock came at 9:23 a. m., 
lasting five seconds. Lighter and briefer tremors occurred 
at intervals of about half an hour, till 12:15 p. m. The first 
shock was most severely felt on the eastern side of the City, 
on the made land between Montgomery street and the Bay. 
On the solid land no serious damage was done to any well- 
constructed house. The Custom House was badly damaged. 
It was poorly constructed. As in 1865, a small crevasse was 
opened on Howard street, beyond Sixth. The greatest dam- 
age was done in a belt several hundred feet wide, running 
northwest and southeast, commencing at the Custom House 
and ending at the Folsom street wharf. The tall chimney of 
the United States Mint was damaged. The ferry steamer 
Contra Costa was near Angel Island and felt the shock 
strongly. Shocks were noted at 7:53; 8:10; 8:15; 8:45; 9:20; 
9 ^30 ; 9 135 ; 10 ; 10 130 ; 1 1 105 a. m., and 2 158 p. m. Waves came 
15 to 20 ft. further inland than usual. There were about thirty 
casualties in the 150,000 inhabitants. Five deaths occurred 
from falling walls, etc. Not a single well-built house on the 
solid land suffered materially, whether of brick, stone, or 
wood. Wooden houses suffered least." 

By following the trace of the pen on the record, it can be 
seen that the first large motion of the earth was due westi 
It measures two inches. As the instrument multiplies 4.3 



CO 




44 AFTER EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE. 

times, the actual displacement of the earth's crust or ampli- 
tude of the wave, was about one-half inch. This also cor- 
responds to the average amplitude of the resultants in the 
direction SSE and NNW. Taking the average period as one 
second, the velocity of the earth-wave during the heavy 
shocks is found to be roughly two inches per second, by far 
the greatest ever observed on the Coast. Heavy masses on 
fairly smooth surfaces were observed to move as much as three 
inches. The times of the several shocks were carefully noted 
by Mr. Albrecht, Fellow in the Lick Observatory, now at the 
University as a graduate student of astronomy, until 9 hr. 
26 m. a. m. After that records were taken by Dr. Crawford 
and Mr. Einarson with the Ewing seismograph. The last 
shocks recorded are mainly from east to west. Observers 
throughout California are requested to send their records to 
the Students' Observatory. The vertical component of the 
shocks was also of great intensity but of less frequency. The 
maximum shock measured in a vertical direction being 0.8 
inch. 



If it were possible to have all the phenomena of the past 
presented to us, the convenient epochs and formations of the 
geologist, though having a certain distinctness, would fade 
into one another with limits as undefinable as those of the 
indistinct and yet separate colors of the solar spectrum. 



The constant widening of the intellectual field has indefi- 
nitely extended the range of that especially human faculty of 
looking before and after, which adds to the fleeting present 
those old and new worlds of the past and the future, wherein 
men dwell the more, the higher their culture. 



FIRST OBSERVATIONS OF THE CATASTROPHE. 

By D'Arcy Weatherbe. 

These notes were made on Saturday, April 21. One who 
felt the shock in Berkeley at 5.15 a. m. — saw the results 
throughout Berkeley and Oakland between 8 a. m. and 3 p. m. ; 
spent from 4 p. m. until 8 p. m. within the fire area and the 
business section of the doomed city of San Francisco on the 
first day of the disaster, and on the third traversed the wastes 
from the ferry to St. Mary's College on the Mission road, 
and from there to the water front end of Van Ness avenue, 
and back through the burned district to the ferry, should at 
least be aware of the prevailing conditions, in however poor 
a mood for description his experience might leave him. Not 
even the pen of a Zola could properly describe the impression 
received and stamped in a lasting manner on the mind of any- 
one of the odd half million people residing in the vicinity of 
San Francisco Bay on that fatal morning of April 18, 1906. 
In meager mechanical words, the general effects were a terror 
that left the recipient in a hopeless, mentally numbed state, 
followed by a physical nausea, the causes of which are akin 
to sea-sickness. It appears, too, that a common impression 
was that the end of the world had come. The reaction nat- 
urally was severe. The immediate and complete annihilation 
of the city by fire and the ensuing panic and consequent wild 
flight of the inhabitants in every direction was succeeded, as 
might be anticipated, by cases of starvation, together with 
looting, violence and demoniacal deeds perpetrated by the 
half crazed or debauched portion of a cosmopolitan commun- 
ity. Many instances of plundering the dead, wilful incendiar- 
ism, persistent selling of liquor, and violence to women were 
summarily punished by shooting on the spot, and in most 
instances the punishment was well deserved at such a crisis, 
though the example to some of the youths in soldier's clothes 
was bad, particularly as many of these were under the influ- 
ence of liquor. 



46 AFTER EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE. 

Men who are appointed to judge on the spot whether a 
fellow man merits death and then to act as summary execu- 
tioner should be specially selected, and it is doubtful whether 
it were not better to altogether forego such method of pun- 
ishment than to have law-abiding and respectable citizens 
butchered on the streets, as has been the case in San 
Francisco. 

Scenes pitiful or ghastly were the rule at hundreds of points 
through the blazing city. The fire, which commenced south 
of Market street, near the water front, gained rapid headway 
and, almost unhindered by the helpless firemen, who were 
without water to combat the flames, it passed up town, lick- 
ing up everything in its way, all the magnificent business 
structures, one by one succumbing to its fury. At the St. 
Francis hotel the main rotunda was crowded with the guests, 
who sat in the dusky twilight (no lights being available) 
with their hand baggage between their knees and waiting for 
they knew not what. This magnificent hostelry, which was 
thought, however, to be comparatively safe, was, seven hours 
later, completely gutted, the guests fleeing for their lives. 
With incredible swiftness the conflagration traversed the busi- 
ness portion of the city and seized with greedy tongues oi 
flame upon the handsome residential and the other thickly 
populated districts. Governed only by the wind, it reached 
Van Ness avenue late on Thursday and followed north from 
Market street along the east side of Van Ness. Crossing this 
beautiful avenue, it wiped out a block on the west side and 
then, reluctant to give up its prey, turned northeast to meet 
the dther fire which had previously devastated Nob, Telegraph 
and Russian hills in its path northwestward toward the 
Golden Gate. Thus the entire area bounded by Market, Van 
Ness and the bay is laid waste ; on the south side of the main 
artery — Market street — the devastated ground is roughly 
bounded by Dolores street on the west and by an irregular 
line following from about the corner of Dolores and Twentieth 
streets, down Twentieth to Kansas, and thence across to 
Twenty-fifth street and easterly by that street to the bay, and 
on the north by the water front. 



48 AFTER EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE. 

The streets of Chinatown, which we passed through, were 
thronged by fully 3,000 Mongolians of all castes and ages. 
Some of the older men and women looked more like leprous 
animals than human beings, and many had probably not been 
out of their over-crowded dens for years. Their squalid effects, 
piled in every conceivable shape, impeded progress through 
the narrow streets, and passing through their district toward 
dusk we hastened our steps ferryward, traversing that dis- 
reputable locality known as the Barbary Coast. Here beasts 
in human shape in every stage of drunkenness, and delirious 
from stolen liquor taken from the wrecked saloons, shouted 
or sang in a perfect pandemonium. Within a few blocks the 
roar of the flames, the noises of constantly falling walls, and 
the dynamiting supplied a sufficiently hellish accompaniment 
to that orgy. 

Refugees from the densly populated Mission district fled 
along the Mission road toward San Mateo, and the sights on 
this highway on Friday, the 20th, are never to be forgotten. 
An endless procession had left the city on Wednesday and 
Thursday with carts, buggies, motor cars, and vehicles of 
every possible description, including hand carts and wheel bar- 
rows. Part of the throng camped wearily in the fields on 
the outskirts of the city, while others kept on toward the 
southern towns. On the fire burning itself out in this direc- 
tion some of the refugees returned, and the scene on Friday 
morning was pitiful in the extreme. Under a blazing sky, the 
heat of the sun being intensified by the pall of smoke that 
hung over the city to the east, were seen old men and women 
helplessly and aimlessly carrying bundles hither and thither. 
Children with fevered faces and women with babes in arms, 
trudged through the dust, which lay nearly a foot deep on the 
road, and was raised in blinding clouds by the passing of 
wagons; this intensified a thirst already strong by reason of 
the unnatural conditions. Fortunately, water in this, as in 
most of the outlying suburbs, became available in reasonable 
amount, though even this was carefully husbanded. The 
fearful contingencies that may arise in these enforced camps 
are famine and disease, the latter spreading quickly on account 




■ :-=:: mm i ' gpiir y > W l ., . . y a Mir- ^m ^g^- IE 







50 AFTER EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE. 

of the necessarily unsanitary state of affairs. Similar condi- 
tions are the case at the Golden Gate Park and the Presidio, 
though here more facilities are provided for the comfort of 
the homeless people. In the streets bricks from the ruined 
structures are everywhere piled in the form of ovens, and 
meals are being cooked in the open. Crowds surround the 
occasional relief wagons that have gained access to the city. 
Flour is received from the cart in hats, in hands or in any 
available utensil, and is quickly converted into flapjacks or 
partially cooked dough. In the poorer districts the fact must 
be emphasized that more kindness and less greed were dis- 
played than in those which could better afford generosity. 
In the Mission district almost every small grocery or food 
shop gave away gratis its entire stock. Even then an armed 
guard was necessary to preserve order. Men and women, 
with hands outstretched, thankfully took whatever was offered 
— tinned stuff of all kinds, meat, vegetables and fruit, and even 
bottles of sauce were thankfully received. 

The handling of the conflagration by the fire department, 
the police and the military, was probably, on the whole, fairly 
well done, though being from the first without water, it was 
a hopeless proposition. That it took as long as it did (five 
square miles laid practically flat in three days) was due en- 
tirely to the favorable condition of the atmosphere, which at 
first was without wind, and at a critical time changed so as 
to turn the flames back partly over the already consumed 
area. Dynamiting, unless done under skilful direction and 
carried out with experienced assistance, is practically use- 
less and should be strongly condemned. Some of the methods 
used in the San Francisco fire did certainly not display either 
experience or even good judgment. In the district covered 
by frame houses from 75 to 150ft). of 40 or 50 r ( powder was 
used. It was generally carried in bulk into the lowest floor 
of the building, placed in the center and set off with a foot 
and a half of fuse, taking about one minute to burn; the 
effect, in the cases that I witnessed, was almost entirely 
lateral, allowing the ruin to fall upon itself. So far so good. 
Fire in several cases started from the explosion, and it should 



FIRST OBSERVATIONS OF CATASTROPHE. 51 

have been carefully followed up by the little water available 
to prevent fire. Moreover, the strip to be dynamited in each 
case should have been decided upon long before the fire had 
reached it, so that when the flames arrived a more or less bar- 
ren patch would be presented. As it was, a handful of inde- 
pendent men without any head waited until the flames were 
within one or more buildings before exploding the edifice, the 
flying debris in some cases actually taking fire in the air. 
Several blocks were lost that might have been saved by taking 
the precaution to examine the contents of the building before 
blasting. In one case noted it contained explosives and spread 
the fire. It is, of course, easy for any one to criticize, though 
not so easy for the same people to have done better. My 
criticisms are meant in a friendly way. Moreover, we have 
no precedents of such magnitude as to serve for an example. 
It was, however, apparent, to almost everybody that there 
was want of organization and system in the city. On the 
contrary, at Berkeley, the energy and systematized arrange- 
ments for relief will long stand as a shining example of 
prompt "first aid to the injured." Many lessons are to be 
drawn from the disaster and particularly from the effects of 
shock and fire on structures designed and built to resist both. 
It cannot be said that tall buildings will not resist shock if 
well built, for we have the case of the Chronicle and Call 
buildings. On the contrary, the Monadnock building, also a 
steel structure, though lower and of large base in compari- 
son, was badly wrecked by the shock. However, the shearing 
strain on rivets and bolts must have been enormous, and it is 
probable even had there been no fire it would have been neces- 
sary to take down the majority of the large buildings for 
safety, even though apparently uninjured — as seen from the 
outside. However that may be, it is early to draw conclusions, 
and it is hoped that the subject may be gone into thoroughly 
and used as a text for some useful expressions of opinion. 



THE YAQUI COUNTRY. 
The Editor: 

Sir — From the standpoint of a mining engineer who has 
been into other parts of the Yaqui Territory before, and who 
has just now ridden over two hundred and thirty miles of 
country lying in and about the hot-bed of these Indians, and 
also speaking with the authority of one who has recently dis- 
cussed the Yaqui question with those in high authority — with 
prominent citizens of Mexico as well as with the peasantry 
in the disturbed sections — I am prompted to ask for space in 
your columns to protest against what, in my opinion, is more 
ignominious than the scandal that attaches to the question in 
general; that is, that it should have been possible to circu- 
late a proclamation denying the Yaqui danger, which procla- 
mation is manifestly designed to attribute to bandits such 
depredations as have been perpetrated, and at the same time 
intended to minimize the danger of travel in Sonora in respect 
of possible Yaqui attacks. 

It is scarcely to be believed that such a proclamation 
was in fact addressed to the Department of Fomento, City of 
Mexico, that is, to Government headquarters, and found the 
willing or unwilling signatures, as the case may be, of more 
than one hundred names, including merchants of Hermosillo, 
Guaymas and Magdalena, native and foreign alike. These 
were the names of business men, mine owners, mine managers, 
mine superintendents, bankers, storekeepers, etc., including 
even the name of the American consul of at least one of the 
towns named. I ask the question, does force of circumstances 
justify this written outrage on public credulity? 

Among the names of those who signed this malicious docu- 
ment was that of Don Pedro Meza, presidente of the little 
mining town of La Dura; he has paid for this the penalty of 
death, even though he carried an escort of forty soldiers, a 
fact which in itself gave the lie to the assertion that the Yaqui 
danger was exaggerated, if it existed at all. 

A Los Angeles newspaper of March 26 comes out with an 



THE YAQUI COUNTRY. 53 

article under the head line, "Story of Massacre Fully Con- 
firmed," and in describing the assassination and butchery of 
Don Pedro Meza, his wife and three grown girls, Mr. Hoff 
and his wife, this newspaper indulges in a vivid, distorted and 
false version of the circumstances of this horrible outrage. 

It was my chance to come upon the scene of the ambush 
two days after its occurrence and to look over, and take photo- 
graphs of, seven partly burned bodies of the Yaqui dead, which 
numbered nine altogether, and I saw besides from fifteen to 
twenty dead horses that marked the direction of the fight. 
A day later we crossed the trail of this same band of one 
hundred and fifty Yaquis, who were carrying their wounded, 
as we knew from a quilt which they had discarded, and from 
blood stains. The signs at this time were very fresh and 
indicated, what was corroborated afterwards, that we were 
very close to the band that had killed Meza and Hoff and their 
families. 

What we saw here, taken in conjunction with the fact that 
seven men and women traveling in the Meza party were killed 
and five of Meza's personal servants — constituting his guard 
— one officer in command and two soldiers of an escort origin- 
ally forty strong, proclaims only too plainly the horrible truth. 
No ground is left for dramatic journalism under these cir- 
cumstances, when the passengers are assassinated and the 
escort is saved. There is but little doubt that the battle be- 
longed to those who did not survive to tell the story of their 
brave part in this inglorious episode. 

The party with which I was traveling went out under the 
direction of Mr. George M. Ryall, of New York City, who is 
a concessionaire of some of the best mining territory contained 
within the Yaqui zone. It included, in all, five Americans 
under escort of eighteen rurales and two officers of the rank 
of lieutenant. In coming upon the scene of the ambush below 
Otate pass, east of Suaqui Grande, we had followed for two 
hours the trail of the Yaqui band going in the same direction 
and had noted the single mule-prints of the animal which was 
ridden by their chief. 

These facts speak for themselves, but that is not enough. 



54 AFTER EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE. 

I raise my single voice in unwavering protest against the 
many who in the signing of the shameful proclamation have 
signed away the lives of tens, and probably hundreds, of men 
and defenceless women who dare to venture outside the walls 
of their little towns upon errands that make their travel im- 
perative. It is true that there have been American citizens 
murdered in ambush; and there will be more to swell the list 
if they go out into the Yaqui country trusting to the misrep- 
resentations that have been made to the Mexican Government 
by mining and mercantile interests, and even by their fellow 
countrymen who have wantonly signed the lying document 
and cleverly worded death trap that has been so carefully 
prepared by some of those in authority. If I have the quali- 
fications to enable me to make a statement of the real condi- 
tion of things as I have seen them, I have also the courage 
to declare against American citizens who are weak enough to 
lend their names to such outrageous purposes. 

Looking a little closer toward home, there comes an official 
order from Washington, D. C, according to which American 
citizens going in and out of the Yaqui infested zone do so at 
their own risk and peril. I believe that I voice the sentiment 
of other Americans when I ask, "Is that all the protection 
the United States citizen is to expect from his Government?" 
and "Are not these same United States authorities aware that 
there is virtually no ammunition to be had in the larger towns 
of the State of Sonora in the region of the Indian trouble?" 
and further, "Are not the Yaquis getting their rifles and am- 
munition from Tucson and Nogales and other points about, 
and north of, the United States frontier? " 

In answering such interrogatories our Government will 
have to admit that there is no restriction placed upon the sale 
of arms and ammunition to the Yaqui people, and will have to 
face the fact that our frontier habitations support many In- 
dians who are in constant communication with their fellows 
in the field. That they are being aided in defense of lands 
which they claim by right of possession, is poor consolation 
when one runs the risk of being ambushed at every turn in 
the road. Many Yaquis are still employed by American inter- 
ests in mines near the frontier. 



THE YAQUI COUNTRY. 55 

The daily importation of ammunition* along the border line, 
the harboring of Yaquis on the American side, and the em- 
ployment of Yaqui labor by American interests on the Mexi- 
can side, can be verified in each respect by anyone who 
wishes to inform himself of the Yaqui question, and if he be 
in the mining profession and he thinks upon the ambush of 
mining men whom he may have personally known, he may 
well stop to ponder as to how much the United States Gov- 
ernment is doing to protect the lives of its citizens when en- 
gaged in developing the mining interests of Sonora before he 
looks across the line to criticize the Government of a sister 
Republic. He will find slim consolation either way. 

I have talked with the Mexican Government scouts, whose 
duty it is to post the army authorities on the disposition, 
movement and numbers of the several bands of Indians that 
constitute the Yaqui people today. These scouts can, and do, 
furnish the information required, but in the meantime fatali- 
ties are frequently reported in the form of the ambushing of 
a stage or of a coach party, or of Mexican families, or of 
the killing of a foreign traveler — sometimes traveling with 
an escort and sometimes without. It has all happened before 
and it will happen again. In the course of time it becomes 
the tearful gossip of a mourning, poverty-stricken people, but 
the news is never published and information of it is quickly 
suppressed. The newspapers are under the ban. On the 
other hand, there is the deserted ranch and houses, roads 
unused, wells abandoned and cattle left to run wild with two- 
year-olds unbranded. That is what the traveler will see today 
in going from La Colorado to Tecoripa, to San Javier, to La 
Dura, to Suaqui Grande and back again. As it is true of this 
section, it is likely to be equally true of the country in the 
vicinity, whether it be more infested or less infested, and if 
there be any reader who questions such description as I have 
given of the territory within the bounds named, let him go a 
few miles to the north and northwest, to Cobachi mountain 

* The Yaqui generally carries the discarded arm of the Mexican army, 
a 45-90 Remington single-fire rifle, with peep sight; the guns that they are 
importing are Winchester 30-3 0's and other modern weapons. 



56 AFTER EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE. 

and Mazatan mountain, and he will find something still more 
interesting. 

My final word to professional friends is to advise them to 
stay out of the Yaqui country until there is some better assur- 
ance of security of travel and safety to life than anything that 
exists today, whether going under escort or otherwise. 

Under conditions involving so many conflicting statements 
concerning these Indian troubles, the man who has business 
that takes him into the Yaqui country has been in the same 
position as the man who is cautiously watching the question- 
able maneuvers of a dog that barks and wags his tail at the 
same time. He is in no position to know which end of the dog 
to believe. To mining engineers who will take this word of 
warning I say that the tail of this beast wags deceitfully. 

El Paso, Texas, April n, igo(5. 

FORBES R1CKARD. 



The scientific man accepts his limitations and does not ex- 
pect to arrive at absolute verity. He observes, and when he 
has advanced far enough to begin to generalize, he formulates 
his ideas as an hypothesis to serve as a basis on which to 
work until someone has suggested something better. 



Within a finite time past the earth must have been, and 
within a finite period of time to come the earth must again be, 
unfit for the habitation of man as at present constituted, unless 
operations have been, or are to be, performed which are impos- 
sible under the laws to which the known operations going on 
at present in the material world are subject. 



A fact in itself has no significance ; neither have a thousand 
facts. What gives facts their value is their relation to each 
other; for when enough have been collected to suggest a 
sequence of cause and effect, a generalization can be made 
which scientific men call a ' law.' The law amounts only to 
this, that certain phenomena have been found to succeed each 
other with sufficient regularity to enable us to count with rea- 
sonable certainty on their recurrence in a determined order. 



THE SEPARATION OF GOLD IN ANTIMONY ORES. 

By F. H. Mason. 

Some time ago it fell to my lot to attempt to find a process 
for the separation of the antimony from the gold in an aurif- 
erous antimony ore. An idea of the nature of the ore may be 
obtained from the analysis of a concentrate made from samples 
broken in different parts of the mine. 
Insoluble matter (principally silica with a little slate) .... 19.90 

Antimony as sulphide and oxy-sulphide 30.00 

Antimony as native metal 8.99 

Lead 3-75 

Zinc 0.53 

Arsenic 0.21 

Iron 7.35 

Alumina 2.15 

Manganese oxide 1.65 

Lime 3. 1 1 

Magnesia 0.43 

Sulphur 16.33 

Carbonic acid 2.86 



97.26 
It will be noticed that there is not sufficient sulphur to sat- 
isfy the antimony existing as stibnite, lead, zinc, arsenic and 
iron, so that the balance of the percentage, to make up the 
hundred, may probably be accounted for by oxygen, a little 
organic matter (which almost invariably accompanies a con- 
centrate) and, possibly, a little fixed alkali, which was not 
determined. The concentrate contained 1.566 oz. gold per ton 
of 2,000 lb. This concentrate was made by Mr. E. P. Brown, 
of Bridgewater, Nova Scotia. Mr. Brown, in his report upon 
the concentration test, states that while 90% of the antimony 
was contained in the concentrate, only 38.4% of the gold was 
retained; so that it would be necessary for the tailing, which 
contained $4 in gold and one per cent antimony, to undergo 



58 AFTER EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE. 

some form of treatment for the recovery of the gold. Mr. 
Brown expresses the opinion that probably there would be 
no difficulty in treating the tailing by bromo-cyanide. 

The first experiments with the concentrate consisted of 
various modifications of cyanidation with the view, if pos- 
sible, to removing the gold and leaving the antimony for sub- 
sequent treatment. Straight cyanide with solutions varying 
from o.i to i% were tried over periods of from one to five 
days, the cyanide being brought up to strength from time to 
time. The ore decomposed the solution rapidly, and practi- 
cally no extraction was obtained. Mixtures of potassium cy- 
anide and bromo-cyanide were next tried; the bromo-cyanide 
prevented the decomposition of the solution, but failed to 
attack the gold to an appreciable degree. The best results 
obtained were less than a 10% extraction in 24 hours; and to 
obtain this the concentrate had to be ground to pass a 100- 
mesh screen. 

Some experiments with cyanogen chloride were tried, which 
were exceedingly interesting, not from a commercial point of 
view, but because the liquid, after filtering, gave a remarkable 
cobalt-blue color, which turned to a claret on acidifying. The 
color remained permanent for days at an ordinary tempera- 
ture, but on attempting to crystallize the salt by evapora- 
tion, the color (whether the alkaline blue or the acid claret) 
disappeared with precipitation of sulphur. Apparatus for 
crystallizing in a vacuum was not at hand, so the matter was 
dropped for the time. The reason for the failure of the bromo- 
cyanide and chloro-cyanide to attack the gold, was attributed 
to the presence of metallic antimony, causing re-precipita- 
tion. The solution, after 24 hours' contact, did not show seri- 
ous decomposition and would attack gold leaf actively. Addi- 
tion of other oxidizing agents, such as hydrogen peroxide and 
sodium peroxide, to the cyanide solution, failed to make the 
latter effective in attacking the gold. It is a little doubtful 
even if a fair percentage of the gold could have been removed 
by cyanide whether it would have left the antimony in a mer- 
chantable form. It was absolutely necessary, in order to get 
any attack at all by the cyanide, that the ore should be in a 



SEPARATION OF GOLD IN ANTIMONY ORES. 59 

very fine state of division; buyers, as a rule, do not want all 
the ore in the form of fine. 

About this time some people arrived in Halifax, from On- 
tario, who were prepared to make a demonstration of a process 
they had devised by which they could save all the antimony, 
gold and sulphur in the ore; and, further, they could recover 
all the reagents used in the operation. This was a nice, mod- 
est claim and so anxious were the owners of the ore to see 
it in operation that the inventors persuaded them to put up 
the necessary funds for the demonstration. 

A shop was rented and the necessary plant installed, the 
latter consisted of a row of small wooden vats and a second 
row of similar vats above them; all the vats were sealed and 
connected with lead pipes. In these vats the ore was placed, 
together with hydrochloric acid, and they were heated by 
steam from a small boiler. The escaping vapors passed 
through a leaden worm placed in running water, where they 
were condensed. It was my duty to investigate the process 
on behalf of the owners of the ore. Three gentlemen arrived 
with the outfit; two of them appeared to have duties of a 
purely financial nature, while the third was introduced to me 
as the chemical wizard. The wizard shot off a good deal of 
popular chemistry to a motley crowd who listened eagerly 
and took in nothing; he was a good talker, and carried the 
crowd with him. On an old counter, he had arranged a num- 
ber of test glasses, in which antimony had been precipitated 
from its chloride as sulphide, by hydrogen sulphide; as oxy- 
sulphide, by sodium thiosulphate ; as oxy-chloride, by water; 
as ferrocyanide, by potassium ferrocyanide ; and as metal, by 
old nails. These formed a few of the pigments the wizard 
could make from the ore. 

Wishing to draw the wizard out and at the same time not 
to appear too critical, I asked a few inane questions; he at 
once pounced upon his prey and a conversation ensued some- 
what after the following: 

Q. Do you know anything about chemistry? 

A. A little. 

Q. Very good. Now that ore is being dissolved in hydro- 



60 AFTER EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE. 

chloric acid, and I can precipitate the antimony as any of 
these pigments, all of which are very valuable. The gold is 
left in the residue; having removed the antimony I can get 
the gold into solution with nitro-hydrochloric acid. Do you 
understand chemical equations? 

A. If they are not too complicated. 

Q. Very good. Now take that orange precipitate you see 
there; how do I get it? Why, I take the sulphureted hydro- 
gen I get, while the ore is being dissolved and with it I pre- 
cipitate the antimony chloride formed, and thus I get back 
the whole of the hydrochloric acid, see? 

Sb 2 S 3 + 6HCl=Sb 2 Cl 6 + 3 H 2 S 
Very good; now 

Sb 2 Cl 6 + 3H 2 Sr=Sb 2 S 3 + 6HC1 

I am bound to say I was struck with the way the wizard 
used these equations for his own purpose ; both the equations 
given, as far as they go, are accurate, but unfortunately a 
chemical equation does not take temperature into considera- 
tion, nor does it consider water unless it absolutely undergoes 
decomposition during the reaction. 

The first of the wizard's equations expresses a reaction 
which takes place with cold concentrated hydrochloric acid 
or hot medium dilute acid. The second equation expresses a 
reaction taking place with moderately concentrated cold acid 
or hot dilute acid with an excess of hydrogen sulphide. Thus 
the acid obtained from the second equation is powerless with- 
out concentration to bring about dissolution of fresh ore. 

Unfortunately for the wizard, the ore provided for him to 
treat had nearly 20% native antimony, and upon this hydro- 
chloric acid had no appreciable action, so that he had to retire 
from the field of his own accord; otherwise, I verily believe 
he might have persuaded the owners to erect a plant, not- 
withstanding my efforts to the contrary; so excellent a talker 
was my friend the wizard. 

But to return to my own experiments. At this time the 
owners were shipping selected ore to England; by the time 
transportation, brokerage and treatment charges were paid, 
this ore only realized about one-fourth its assay-value. Added 



SEPARATION OF GOLD IN ANTIMONY ORES. 61 

to this, consideration has to be taken of the fact that it prob- 
ably required the removal of from six to ten tons of ore to 
obtain one ton of selected material. The ore shipped ran 
from 40 to 45% antimony and about $50 in gold. My next 
experiments were on some of this selected material. It oc- 
curred to me that possibly by raining a small amount of 
metallic antimony through molten sulphide, the gold might 
leave the sulphide and follow the metallic antimony, and if so, 
the same metal could be used over and over again on different 
charges of sulphide until it attained a richness, the degree 
of which would have to be found by experiment, when it 
would have to be treated for the gold. To test this theory 
a quantity of the ore was liquidated. The following is the 
result of the liquation : 

Liquated regulus 76.6 per cent 

Residue 16.8 " " 

Loss by volatilization and adhering to crucible ... 6.6 " " 

The regulus contained 2.66 oz. gold and the residue 0.7 oz. 
gold per ton. 

The residue which contained about 12% antimony was 
smelted and the metal obtained contained practically all the 
gold in the residue; this metal was crushed and showered 
on the top of molten regulus contained in a crucible; the 
crucible was allowed to remain for a time in the fire to give 
the metal a chance of settling, and the contents poured. No 
metal was found at the bottom of the ingot of sulphide, but 
the regulus had increased in weight by more than the weight 
of the added metal. It is assumed that the powdered metal 
oxidized and formed with the sulphide a regulus of oxy-sul- 
phide. This regulus was returned to the crucible and fine iron 
turnings were added and stirred in ; two lots of iron were thus 
added. Each addition was arranged to reduce 10% of the 
metal; on pouring, 25% of the metal was found to have been 
reduced, which on assay proved to contain 84.3% of the gold 
in the regulus. A number of other experiments were tried 
on these lines, but nothing practical promised. Another set 
of experiments was made by fusing the regulus with soda ash 
and pot-ashes and adding varying quantities of metallic iron 



62 AFTER EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE. 

to precipitate a part of the metal. It was found that it was 
necessary to precipitate from 20 to 25% of the metal in order 
to get over 90% of the total gold concentrated in it. It was 
evident that it was necessary to precipitate too large an 
amount of antimony for this process to be of any practical 
utility. 

Leaching the ore with sodium sulphide with a view to re- 
moving the antimony, was tried next. For these experiments, 
the concentrate previously mentioned was used ; it was treated 
with a hot 15% solution of sodium sulphide for six hours, 
and 82% of the antimony went into solution; but when the 
residue was assayed, it was found that 17.8% of the gold had 
gone into solution also. As only 77% of the antimony ex- 
isted as sulphide, it will be noticed that the sodium sulphide 
had attacked the native metal; this was expected, and it was 
for this reason that the sulphide was used in preference to 
the hydroxide; the sodium sulphide first coats the particles of 
metallic antimony with sulphide, which is dissolved in excess 
of the reagent. Of course sodium sulphide was known to be 
a feeble solvent for gold, but such a marked attack upon that 
metal was not expected. Solutions of sodium sulphide, both 
hot and cold, and of varying strengths, were tried, but to get 
any attack upon the native antimony, invariably meant an 
attack upon the gold also, and for this reason the use of 
sodium sulphide had to be abandoned. Wet reactions on the 
raw concentrate, for the removal of either the gold or the an- 
timony, having proved futile, it was now decided to subject 
the ore to a preliminary roast. When antimony ore is roasted, 
two oxides are formed, namely, antimony trioxide, which is 
volatile and passes out of the furnace, and antimony tetroxide, 
which is fixed and remains in the furnace with the gangue. 
The tetroxide is not appreciably attacked by solutions of acids, 
alkalies, cyanides, chlorine or bromine, so that if no gold were 
lost in roasting the ore, there appeared to be no reason why 
the precious metal itself should not be recovered from the 
residue, by either chloride or cyanide. The proportion of tri- 
oxide formed by roasting varies with the temperature at which 
the operation is carried out; a low temperature appears to 



SEPARATION OF GOLD IN ANTIMONY ORES. 63 

favor the formation of tetroxide. Of course the temperature 
must be kept very low during the early stages of the roast, on 
account of the low melting point of stibnite. 

The concentrate was found to lose from 14 to 30% of its 
weight by roasting; the variation depending entirely upon 
the temperature and being due to varying amounts of the 
trioxide formed. A number of roasts were made and in no 
case was as much as three per cent of the gold lost during 
the operation. Chlorination of the roasted ore was attempted 
first. The chloride of lime used (the best that could be ob- 
tained locally) was of poor quality and only yielded 20.5% 
available chlorine, while material of good quality should yield 
35% available chlorine. 

A large number of experiments were made, and it was 
found that 75% of the gold could be extracted from the 
roasted ore by agitating it for 24 hours with three per cent (of 
the weight of the ore) chloride of lime and six per cent sul- 
phuric acid. The best results were obtained when all the acid 
and one per cent of the lime chloride were added at the be- 
ginning of the operation, a second portion of the lime chloride 
after eight hours and a third portion after 16 hours' agitation. 
The large amount of acid was necessary in order to neutralize 
the lime in the ore itself. An addition of two per cent of salt 
was made at the termination of one of the roastings with a 
view to cutting down the acid necessary and, if possible, of 
improving the extraction. On assaying the roasted ore, it 
was found to have lost 49% of the gold, by volatilization. 
Cyanidation of the roasted ore was less successful than chlor- 
ination; the best result obtained was an extraction of 27% of 
the gold by agitating for 60 hours with 0.2% potassium cyan- 
ide and 0.5 % cyanogen bromide. 

It was now decided to reduce the antimony tetroxide to 
trioxide, and remove as much of the antimony as possible out 
of the furnace. The concentrate was mixed with 20% its 
weight of powdered anthracite and roasted, when most of the 
sulphur was burnt off. The temperature was raised suf- 
ficiently to ignite the anthracite. The quantity of air enter- 
ing the furnace was now reduced and the charge, which had 



64 AFTER EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE. 

to be rabbled energetically in the early stages of the roast, 
was now only turned over every few minutes, when fumes of 
the trio'xide had almost ceased to come away ; more anthracite 
was added and mixed with the charge by energetic rabbling. 
Anthracite was added from time to time in this way, until its 
further addition failed to produce fumes of trioxide of anti- 
mony ; which was the signal that the roast was completed. 

In the small-scale experiments made (200 to 500 grams) it 
was found that this concentrate required about 40 c 4 its weight 
of anthracite in order to remove nearly the whole of the an- 
timony ; powdered coke answered equally as well as anthracite. 
Experiments showed that the residue could be relied upon to 
contain 97% of the gold, and in several of them it contained 
over 99%. By carefully regulating the draft, the antimony 
contents of the residue have been reduced to as low as 0.6%, 
but it more often ran from 1 to 1.5 per cent. 

The theory of the process is, of course, evident. The tetrox- 
ide is reduced first to trioxide and then probably to metal, 
while the incoming air oxidizes the metal first to trioxide and 
then to tetroxide; in this way, the antimony is oxidized and 
then reduced, and at each oxidation and reduction it passes 
through the stage of trioxide when it is volatile and has a 
chance to escape out of the furnace. The antimony trioxide is 
collected in condensing chambers and is in a condition well 
suited for direct reduction to metal by fusion with carbon. 
The condensing chambers will also contain the arsenic and 
zinc as oxide and a little of the lead also as oxide, but as the 
two former exist in such a small proportion in the original 
concentrate, they will probably not seriously affect the anti- 
mony produced. With regard to the residue, it contains from 
5 to 6 c /c lead, together with 1 to i^>% antimony and is clearly 
suitable for smelting, as it contains in itself nearly sufficient 
base metal in which to concentrate the gold. A sample of 
the residue was submitted to the American Smelting & Refin- 
ing Company for a quotation, and they offered to pay for the 
whole of the gold at $20 per oz., 4.5c per lb. for the lead, less 
1.5c importation duty and to charge $6 per ton for treatment. 

Here then appears, as far as it is possible to tell by labora- 



SEPARATION OF GOLD IN ANTIMONY ORES. 65 

tory experiments, a process by which the gold and antimony 
may be successfully and commercially separated from each 
other. If the ore were closely concentrated, so that the con- 
centrate contained only from 10 to 15% gangue, the amount 
of material to be smelted — compared with the original ore — 
would be quite small. Experiments were tried with both 
chlorination and cyanide upon the residue, but in neither case 
was an extraction obtained which would commercially com- 
pete with smelting. 

Mr. J. S. McArthur — of cyanide fame — has given this ore 
some attention; unfortunately, his experiments were con- 
ducted upon a sample which contained little or no native 
metal. He has devised an exceedingly pretty process which, 
however, is not suited to ore containing much native metal. 
He removes the antimony by leaching it with a two per cent 
solution of caustic soda; this solution is treated with carbonic 
acid, which re-precipitates the antimony as sulphide, and the 
solution — after the removal of the sulphide — is regenerated 
by the addition of caustic lime. The reaction may be ex- 
pressed by the following equations: 

Sb 2 S 3 + 6NaOH=Na 3 SbS 3 + Na 3 SbO s + 3H 2 

Na 3 Sb0 3 + Na 3 SbS 3 + 3 cb 2 =:Sb 2 S 3 + 3Na 2 C0 3 

Na 2 C0 3 + Ca (OH) 2 = 2 NaOH + CaC0 3 

The residue, after the removal of the antimony, Mr. McArthur 

first roasts and then cyanides. 

In conclusion, it may be of interest to give the method used 
for determining the antimony. The quantity of material taken 
for the assay is such that it contains in the neighborhood of 
0.2 grams antimony; to this is added 15 c.c. hydrochloric acid 
and a like amount of water, and it is digested at a tempera- 
ture of 8o° C. until sulphureted hydrogen ceases to be evolved. 

Nitric acid is now added, a drop at a time (the beaker 
containing the assay being replaced for a few minutes on the 
hot plate after each addition), until the native metal is dis- 
solved. The solution is then filtered from the residue and the 
latter is washed with a 10% solution of hydrochloric acid. 
The antimony is precipitated from the filtrate by adding three 
grams of spongy tin and the solution is kept at about 8o° C. ; 



66 AFTER EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE. 

the precipitation of the metal takes from one to one and one- 
half hours. The antimony is allowed to settle and the liquid 
decanted through a filter, and the metal washed by decan- 
tation, with a 10% solution of hydrochloric acid; the wash- 
ings, of course, going through the filter. 

The metal is washed into a flask, 15 c.c. of strong hydro- 
chloric acid and a few crystals of potassium chlorate are added, 
and the solution is made up to about 50 c.c. The flask is 
placed on the hot plate and when the antimony is dissolved, it 
is boiled briskly until free from chlorine; it is then cooled, 
three grams potassium iodide added, the solution made up 
to 200 c.c. with water and the liberated iodine titrated with 
standard thiosulphate from which the antimony is calculated. 

In order to get the antimony in the roasted ore into solution 
it is first gently fused with potassium cyanide which converts 
the tetroxide and any insoluble antimonates into the metal. 
The mass is leached with water and the residue treated as a 
soluble ore. 

The extraction of gold from its ore by free milling process 
consists of two operations: the pulverization of the ore to 
free the gold from its matrix, and amalgamation of the par- 
ticles of gold with quicksilver. These two processes, simple 
in themselves, have many modifications in the practice of 
various districts, the variations being necessitated by the dif- 
ference in the character of the ores. Concentration is wholly 
independent of amalgamation. Some gold ores require no 
concentration; others can be worked in no other way than 
smelting. 



MUNTZ METAL PLATES. 
By A. R. Parsons. 

The Bamberger-DeLamar Gold Mines Company is grinding 
ore in a 0.15% cyanide solution, the pulp being allowed to 
flow direct from the Chilean mills to amalgamating plates. 
Formerly copper plates 1-8 in. thick with one ounce of silver 
per square foot were used. These rapidly became rough and 
pitted, and at the end of two months were found to be ragged 
at the lower end and practically destroyed, unfitting them 
for amalgamating purposes and necessitating their removal. 

As a trial two muntz metal plates 1-8 inch thick, with one 
ounce of silver per square foot were installed and they proved 
such a success that the copper plates were replaced by muntz 
metal throughout. The life of the latter is more than four 
times that of the former. The muntz metal amalgamates 
readily, the amalgam being easily detached, facilitating a rapid 
clean up. The amalgam is not absorbed by muntz metal to 
such an extent as by copper. This was recently proved on 
bars formed by melting two old copper and two muntz metal 
plates, the latter having been in use much longer than the 
former. New plates from the alloy do not require the careful 
attention and manipulation that is necessary with new copper 
plates. The discoloration and appearance of "verdigris" ex- 
perienced with copper is no longer noticed. 

Care must be observed in using mercury for dressing, as 
the muntz metal will not hold the mercury like copper, and if 
a slight excess is used it will collect in globules, and for this 
reason it is advisable to brush the plates more frequently than 
is customary with copper. We unhesitatingly recommend 
their use where amalgamation is carried on in a cyanide 
solution. 



A NEW METHOD OF SMELTING BUTTE ORES. 
By William A. Heywood. 

Since August, 1905, the smelter of the Pittsburgh and 
Montana Copper Co., situated on the flat about two miles 
east of Butte, Montana, has been running continuously and 
producing about 100 tons of copper per month by the Bag- 
galey process. While the entire plant invented by Mr. Ralph 
Baggaley has not yet been installed, enough has been done, 
that is different from the usual methods of treatment, to 
demonstrate the success of his ideas in eliminating water con- 
centration and roasting, substituting the use of a basic-lined 
converter producing copper from matte of low copper tenor 
and employing silicious ore for flux in the converter. 

The smelter is situated close to the No. 2 shaft, from which 
all the copper ore now being mined by the company is raised. 
The ore has the following average composition: 

Copper, 2 to 4 per cent; silica, 52 per cent; iron, 14 per cent; 
sulphur, 17 per cent; alumina, 7 per cent; magnesia, 1 per 
cent, and zinc, 2 per cent. 

The company also owns the Spring Hill mine near Helena, 
from which it gets about 50 tons per day of pyrrhotite ore,, 
having the following composition: 

First Class Second Class 

Silica, 9 per cent 30 per cent 

Iron, 48 31 

Sulphur, 32 13 

Lime, 5 " 23 

Copper None None 

Gold, $7 per ton $2 per ton 

Some experiments in smelting this ore pyritically, using 
Butte ore for flux, have been made, but as the quantity of 
silicious copper ore is far in excess of the pyrrhotite, a partial 
pyritic charge has been found more satisfactory. The fuel 
value of the sulphur in the pyrrhotite is used as well as the 
iron for flux. The extra base required for flux is added in 
the form of limestone. 

The blast furnace used was designed to experiment with 



NEW METHOD OF SMELTING BUTTE ORES. 69 

the Garretson process. These experiments proved a failure 
and the furnace has been used as an ordinary blast furnace. 
It is built of cast-copper water-jackets, 38 by 158 in. at the 
tuyeres. It has 14 three-inch tuyeres on each side. The 
distance from the tuyeres to the charge floor is nine feet. 

The materials smelted since September 1, 1905, are as 
follows : 

Converter and 
In Lime- Butte Pyrrho- blast furnace 

blast rock ores tite Matte slags Total Coke 

Days Tons Tons Tons Tons Tons Tons Tons 

Sept. 22 775 2097 x 495 l8 ° 1 7° 47 x 7 5 28 

Oct. 31 933 3053 1307 825 624 7078 637 

Nov. 25 814 2786 1235 584 302 5723 474 

Dec. 31 1143 3551 1631 112 262 6699 606 

Jan. 31 1316 3589 1389 200 166 6660 664 

Feb. 28 1263 3308 1062 267 225 6125 612 

The average of the slag and matte is as follows : 

Cu in. SLAG ANALYSIS 

matte Cu Si0 2 FeO CaO 

Per cent Per cent Per cent Per cent Per cent 

Sept 8.6 0.11 46.1 21. 1 20.4 

Nov 20.6 0.24 42.2 29.7 17.2 

Dec 24.2 0.24 43.6 25.5 18.7 

Jan 28.2 0.21 43.8 21.9 21.4 

Feb 23.8 0.19 44.0 22.0 20.0 

These slags also contain 7.5% Al 2 O s ; 2.5% MgO; 2.5% ZnO 
and 0.5 % sulphur. 

No effort was made to obtain a high rate of concentration 
in the blast furnace. Employing iron sulphide (pyrrhotite) 
as a flux, reduced the grade of the resulting matte, but lowered 
materially the amount of coke necessary to smelt the mix- 
tures and the copper lost in slag. It will be noted that these 
slags are the cleanest ever produced from Butte ores. As our 
matte was treated in a basic-lined converter using silicious 
ore as a flux, this low-grade matte produced in the blast 
furnace was not a source of expense in converting, as it would 
be if an ordinary silica-lined converter were used. It might 



70 AFTER EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE. 

be argued that this occasioned greater loss in converter-slags 
on account of the greater volume of slag made in the con- 
verter from these low-grade mattes. These converter-slags, 
from November onward, were poured in molten state into 
the blast furnace, consequently the assay of the blast-furnace 
slag includes the copper loss of the converters. It will be 
noted that 624 tons of converter-slag were smelted during 
October. During this month the slag from the converters 
was cooled, broken up and added to the blast-furnace charge. 

During November, December and January the tonnage of 
converter-slag is much less, as no account is taken of the 
molten converter-slag poured through the blast furnace. The 
slag weighed during those months represents the 'hulls' left 
in the ladles and the necessary cleaning up about the con- 
verters and blast furnace. The amount of slag made per ton 
of ore smelted varied with the different charges from 1900 to 
2300 lb., and the slag-loss is from 5.4 to 6 lb. copper per ton 
of ore smelted. 

Our extraction of copper in the blast furnace has been 
about 90%. Taking the Butte ore at 4% copper, this would 
produce 320 lb. of 25% matte per ton of ore. The iron in this 
matte when fluxed with Butte ore would form about 300 lb. 
converter-slag. As this slag was discharged at 0.24^, the 
loss of copper in converter-slag equals 0.72 lb. copper per ton 
of ore smelted in the blast furnace, or a total smelting loss in 
both blast furnace and converter of less than 7 lb. copper per 
ton of ore smelted. I have not taken into account flue-dust 
losses, as with proper chambers and flues the losses in this 
way are small and are no greater by our method than by the 
older plan of treatment. At this point it may be interesting 
to compare our loss of 7 lb. copper per ton of ore smelted with 
some of the results of other smelters. At Granby, with self- 
fluxing ore and a charge of nothing but ore and coke in the 
blast furnace, I am informed that the blast-furnace slag loss is 
7 lb. copper per ton of ore smelted. At the plant of the Ten- 
nessee Copper Company, with a low-grade pyrrhotite copper 
ore using barren quartz for flux and a double pyritic smelt- 
ing, the loss of copper is about 9.4 lb. per ton of ore smelted. 
What the copper loss in the treatment of Butte ores by other 



NEW METHOD OF SMELTING BUTTE ORES. 71 

companies may be, is difficult to say. Neither the Amal- 
gamated nor the Montana Ore Purchasing Company (United 
Copper Co.) publishes any data regarding their extraction. We 
do know, however, that a 4% copper ore such as we have 
been smelting would be consigned to the concentrator and 
the best saving claimed for water concentration in the Butte 
district is 80% of the copper. On this basis 16 lb. of copper 
would be thrown away in tailing. In other words, they lose 
more than twice as much copper before they start smelting 
as we do during our entire process. 

1. We smelt directly our low-grade ores. Others classify 
their ores and send the high grade to the blast furnace and 
the low grade to the concentrator. The standard of what 
constitutes first class ore is gradually being lowered and is 
now about 5% copper or over. This lowering of the standard 
indicates the trend of metallurgists to avoid the wasteful 
practice of water concentration. 

2. We employ pyrrhotite or iron sulphide ores for flux. If 
this has an assay-value it is a much cheaper flux than barren 
limestone, because it materially reduces the quantity of coke 
required to smelt the charge. 

3. We make a low-grade matte in the blast furnace and 
thereby make the cleanest slag and the lowest copper loss ever 
obtained from Butte ores. The employment of a basic-lined 
converter and the smelting of silicious ore in the converter as 
flux for the iron in these low-grade mattes enable us profitably 
to convert low-grade matte where the cost of continually re- 
lining a silica-lined converter would be prohibitive. Since the 
other Montana companies started lining their converter shells 
with ore and adding silicious ore to the converter-charge there 
has been a gradual reduction in the grade of matte that it is 
profitable to convert, and there has followed a diminution in 
their blast-furnace slag-losses. 

4. All our converter-slag, except the small proportion that 
chills in the ladles, is poured molten into the blast furnace. 
This cleans the slag by allowing the particles of matte to 
settle; there is a beneficial effect on the blast furnace by 
scouring it out, and saving the cost of handling and re- 
smelting. 



72 AFTER EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE. 

Prior to October 7, the converter plant was not used ex- 
cept in experiments. The old vertical blowing-engine having 
broken down, a new horizontal cross-compound Reynolds en- 
gine was purchased and installed. The blast-furnace matte 
made up to October 7, was either sold to the Montana Ore 
Purchasing Company or stored. 

The converter employed in the Baggaley process is com- 
posed of steel rings 11 in. thick and 18 in. wide. It is lined 
with one course, 9 in., of magnesite brick. The cap is not 
lined. The total length of the converter is 13 ft. The length 
inside the brick lining is 9 ft. 6 in. The outside diameter of 
the converter is 8 ft.; the diameter inside the lining is 4 ft. 
9 inches. 

The method of operating is as follows: About 1000 lb. ore 
is placed in the converter and a tap of four or five tons of low- 
grade matte poured in. The charge is then blown with the 
addition of ore in 1000-lb. lots until the matte is 'high', that 
is, the iron has been eliminated. 

The slag is then poured off and a fresh tap of matte added 
with more ore. When it is desired to finish a charge, the 
white metal in the converter is blown to copper in the usual 
manner, without the addition of ore. 

The converter works freely and quickly, and its large size 
permits large quantities of matte to be handled. With matte 
containing 10% copper I have added 60 tons before finishing 
it and kept the charge blowing for 48 hours before pouring 
copper. With matte containing 30% copper we have finished 
a charge in three hours. The size of the copper charges as 
poured depends, of course, on the grade of the matte and the 
number of taps added; we have finished charges of less than 
a ton of copper and also charges of seven tons of copper. As 
the lining remains the same size, there is much greater free- 
dom and elasticity in the sizes of charges than with a silica- 
lined converter. 

From October 7, 1905, to January 31, 1906, we have made 
over 500 tons of copper. The same magnesia lining that was 
in the converter at the start is still in use. The only repairs 
have been the renewal of some of the bricks about the tuyeres, 
on four occasions, when they had become dislodged or broken 






NEW METHOD OF SMELTING BUTTE ORES. 73 

by the punching of blocked tuyeres. Our blast furnace being 
small and our ores low grade, we have been unable to keep 
the converter supplied with matte. If we had all the matte 
the converter could handle it would turn out over 500 tons of 
copper per month. As our matte is much lower grade than 
that which anyone else attempts to convert, to the best of my 
knowledge, this is better work than was ever done by a 
silica-lined converter. 

With this kind of converter not more than five tons of cop- 
per, from low-grade matte, could be made before the converter 
would require re-lining, that is, the converter would be lined 
100 times for our 500 tons of copper. The labor and power 
used in re-lining is at least $10 per shell, so the saving in 
labor of re-lining alone is $1000 up to January 31. We have 
smelted 11 18 tons of silicious ore in the converter at practi- 
cally no cost. The labor required on each shift is one skim- 
mer, one puncher and one helper. The converter has given 
less trouble than any converter I ever ran, although I had 
never before attempted this method of converting and the 
entire force of men was inexperienced in converting in a basic- 
lined converter. 

The following table shows the amount of Butte silicious 
ore (50% Si0 2 ; 14% Fe) required to form a converter-slag 
of 30% Si0 2 , 60% FeO with 5 tons of copper mattes of various 
grades : 

Copper in Matte. Ore Required. 

5 per cent. 9350 lb. 

10 " 8700 " 

15 " • 8050 " 

20 " 7450 " 

25 " 6800 " 

30 " 6200 " 

The desirability of using a basic-lined converter and intro- 
ducing the necessary silica by some other means than the de- 
struction of the lining has been recognized since the intro- 
duction of the Bessemer process in treating copper mattes. 
Until it was successfully accomplished at the Pittsmont 
smelter, it had never been done. 

Mr. Herman Keller, while superintendent of the Parrot 



74 AFTER EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE. 

smelter, at Butte, about 1890, attempted converting in a shell 
lined with magnesite. A record of his attempts and failures, 
written by him, is given on pages 570, 571 and 572 of 'Modern 
Copper Smelting,' by Peters. The three reasons given by Mr. 
Keller why the basic-lined converter was a failure and the 
process abandoned at the Parrot, have never been in evidence 
at the Pittsmont, in the special converter patented by Mr. 
Baggaley. Taking the three reasons separately I would reply 
as follows: 

1. The outside of the converter has never been ''danger- 
ously hot." Considering the grade of the mattes treated, the 
converter works much quicker than any silica-lined converter 
I have ever used. 

2. We have never experienced any difficulty in adding 
silicious ore to the converter in such a manner that it would 
combine with the ferrous oxide. 

3. As the same lining has lasted five months and is still 
in service, there cannot be any 'shelling' of the magnesite 
brick worth mention. Moreover, if the magnesite lining were 
now completely destroyed, it has paid for itself in the saving 
of labor alone required in re-lining a silica-lined converter. 

The following are the points of difference between our blast- 
furnace practice and that of other companies treating Butte 
ore. 

At least 10,000 tons of copper ore are now mined daily in 
Butte. Probably one-fourth, or 2500 tons, is considered first- 
class and smelted directly in the blast furnace. The remainder, 
7500 tons, is consigned to the mills for water concentration. 
This ore averages over, 30 % copper, consequently the loss of 
20% in tailing entails a daily loss of over $15,000 before smelt- 
ing commences. This loss represents at least $2 per ton of 
second-class ore treated or nearly double the smelting cost at 
Tennessee or Granby. In order to obtain water, to wash 20^ 
of the values away, most of the ore has to be hauled by rail- 
way to Anaconda and Great Falls. The concentrate contain- 
ing the 80% of the value saved is too fine for pyritic smelting 
in the blast furnace and contains too much sulphur for rever- 
beratory smelting, consequently it is roasted. This roasting 
is a waste of the fuel (sulphur) contained in the ore, in addi- 



NEW METHOD OF SMELTING BUTTE ORES. 75 

tion to the expense of the operation. The roasted concentrate 
is too fine for the blast furnace, so it is treated in reverberatory 
furnaces. Reverberatory smelting is not only more costly 
than blast-furnace smelting, but the losses in slag are much 
greater. 

I am informed that in the blast furnaces of the Washoe 
smelter at Anaconda, they have tried a mixture of all their 
Butte ores in the proportion they were received for a year 
with very satisfactory results. They obtained a 50% matte, 
lime being used as a flux. If iron sulphides were employed to 
replace part of the lime, the loss in slag would have been 
lowered, as the blast-furnace matte would have been of lower 
grade, and the coke consumption materially lessened. 

In the Mineral Industry for 1901, page 698, Dr. Franklin 
Carpenter states: "I have smelted many thousand tons of 
Butte copper ores at the Deadwood plant and have no hesi- 
tancy in stating that the whole of the concentrating and roast- 
ing machinery employed around the Montana smelting works 
is unnecessary, provided the process of pyritic smelting is 
employed that was first developed at Deadwood, S. D." Con- 
sidering the strides in pyritic smelting since 1901 and in view 
of our experiments, how much more wasteful and unnecessary 
does the present method of water concentration and roasting 
appear ! 

To treat the Butte output pyritically a large amount of iron 
sulphide ore would necessarily be employed. When the large 
amount of first-class ore is considered, much less iron and 
lime would be needed than we have employed in treating only 
the lowest grade and most silicious of Butte ores. Whether 
it would be more profitable to bring iron ores to the copper 
ore or haul the copper ore over the mountains to obtain water 
to wash away 20% of their value, can easily be demonstrated. 
Without a large quantity of iron sulphide ores and using only 
limestone for flux, with what iron ores of any kind that can 
be obtained, the treatment of Butte ores in blast furnaces and 
converters has been demonstrated to be more economical than 
the methods now employed by all companies in Montana ex- 
cept the Pittsburgh & Montana Copper Company. 



EDITORIAL. 

May 5, 1906. 
The recent occurrence shook a lot of the smallness out of 
humanity and made it big in generosity and in courage. It 
is curious how the old spirit of the pioneer days has descended 
on men who never expected to face the simple realities of life, 
as their fathers knew them in 1849. The spirit of the Argo- 
nauts has been transmitted and the people of San Francisco — 
nay, the people of California — are as full of life and hope in 
the rebuilding of their great City as were those who reclaimed 
the sand dunes, filled the marshes and leveled the hillslopes 
on which San Francisco was erected forty years ago. We 
used to date the beginning of the State from the rush of 1849, 
henceforth we shall speak of the new awakening that followed 
the event of 1906. 



It recalled old times in Colorado to see a train of supplies 
from that State arriving at Berkeley, in aid of those who suf- 
fered by the San Francisco conflagration. But when we saw 
two cars labeled from Denver and another from Breckenridge, 
it seemed like a message from personal friends. Good little 
Breckenridge, famous the world over for the wonderful speci- 
mens of native gold, has proved the possession of a warm 
heart and a helping hand — something that gold does not buy 
and more exquisite than the most gorgeous of the crystalline 
aggregates that come from the mines of Farncomb hill. In- 
deed, one of the great compensations of a disaster that appeals 
to the imagination and sensibilities of mankind, is the stimu- 
lation of sympathy and the emphasis placed upon the essen- 
tial kinship of the race. We do not doubt as to who is the 
most enriched, the sufferer who receives aid in time of trouble 
or the man whose whole nature is uplifted by a noble impulse. 



The conflagration was so complete that many former build- 
ings are indicated by a mere remnant of rubble. Whole blocks 
300 by 500 feet were swept by the flames in three-quarters of 
an hour. The conflagration was of such a magnitude that the 



EDITORIAL. 



77 



intensity of heat was terrific. Girders two feet wide can be 
seen tortured into strange curves. A few houses survive on 
the top of Russian hill and Telegraph hill; the Fairmont 
stands like a great acropolis overlooking the ruins of an 
ancient city. The few surviving sky scrapers look gaunt and 
ragged. Distance is killed by absence of landmarks and the 
erasure of high walls; the City appears to have shriveled, it 
seems no distance between points formerly too far to walk. 




Russian Hill. 
A Small Portion That Survived the Conflagration. 

Squares we thought commodious air spaces have dwindled to 
insignificant enclosures. At a distance the streets meet the 
sky-line with a slight indent, the roadways make gray bands 
among rectangles of dark wreckage; a few chimneys stand 
tottering drearily above the ashes of vanished homes. 



AFTER THE DISASTER. 

San Francisco is known to mining men the world over as 
a delightful rendezvous; from the Nevada deserts, from the 
Arizona border, from the Mexican ports, from the hills of 
California, from Australia and the Orient, the seekers after 
mineral wealth come to the City by the Golden Gate, and 
there enjoy the rest, the pleasure and the associations that 
compensate for the weariness of travel and the stress of pro- 
fessional labor. To them it will be a matter of interest to 
learn how the City looks after having passed through earth- 
quake and fire. 

As you cross the Bay from Oakland or Berkeley, the City 
looks scarcely different; such prominent landmarks as the 
Ferry tower, the Call building, the Fairmont hotel and other 
familiar structures are visible, but as you look closer you note 
the absence of tone ; it is all dull. The glory of life has gone, 
it is a ruin that you see. As the ferry passes Goat island and 
begins to approach the landing, the destruction becomes 
apparent. The Ferry building is there with bowed lines that 
tell of structural injury and the tower appears out of plumb. 
The flagstaff is bent and the clock still points to the moment 
when it was shaken to a full stop. It says 5:16, but then the 
ferry clock never was a reliable time-piece and the quake 
might well have discovered it one or two minutes fast. The 
scaffolding around the tower indicates the work of repair; 
it is doubtful whether it will not be necessary to rebuild at a 
later date. On emerging from the Ferry building, one was 
accustomed to the full-toned voice of a big town, intensified 
by traffic over the cobbles of Market street and the confused 
shouts of hotel runners, the strident cries of newsboys and the 
clanging of car bells. All these are silent ; the noises are those of 
a village; the wagons, express carts, and men on horseback 
partially screen a ghastly background. Heaps of brick and 
tottering portions of walls stretch far and wide in pathetic 
desolation; and far above them, like the surviving giants of 
a mighty forest that has been stricken by fire, there looms the 



AFTER THE DISASTER. 79 

stately skeleton of the Call building and other 'sky-scrapers' — 
a popular term that has the sound of a sad irony. Most of 
the streets are blocked with a disorderly heap of brick and 
iron, although one or two main arteries have already been 
partially cleared so that it is easy to pass through the ruins. 
The effects of the earthquake have been partially obliterated 
by the conflagration, for the disturbed surface is covered with 
rubbish and the buildings that collapsed were among the first 
to burn, with a fierceness of combustion that is readily appre- 
ciated when the cause is understood. The shock of the earth 
tremble broke the gas mains and their inflammable content 
was immediately ignited by the sparks from severed electric 
wires. Thus does the complexity of civilization add new ter- 
rors and until the aids to material comfort are safeguarded by 
the inventive genius that created them, man would better live 
as his ancestors did. Those who live in tents and know no 
illuminant save the camp fire, would have remembered an 
earthquake such as that of April 18 only as a dizzy moment 
when trees rocked and the tent-poles shook. But we live no 
longer as nomads; we raise structures that go far above the 
trembling soil. On Valencia street, between 18th and 19th 
streets, there was a hotel, a large wooden structure. The 
ground on which it stood sank the height of one story and 
the building collapsed, killing several people. The site of 
it is not recognizable, for the fire stripped it clean; but the 
adjoining tract affords interesting evidence. Valencia street 
has sunk 8 to 10 feet and looking east over the charred remains 
of two intervening blocks, one sees another frame building 
that has lurched like a drunken man. This particular part 
of the City — on the south side — stands on an old creek-bed 
that has been filled. Down 18th street also, from Valencia to 
Howard, the ground has sunk on the north side along the 
center of the cobble-paved roadway and there is a crack 12 
to 15 inches wide along the line of rupture. Neighboring 
houses show the effects of disturbance. Evidence of a simi- 
lar kind is obtainable elsewhere in this vicinity and it is note- 
worthy that the belt of deranged buildings and dislocated 
roadways follows exactly the line of the filling over the old 



80 AFTER EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE. 

creek. In another locality, at the southwest corner of the new 
Post Office, the street and sidewalk have sunk five feet from 
the building, which stands solid and safe on its own properly 
constructed foundations. At the corner of Steuart and Market 
streets, the roadway has dropped bodily fully five feet while 
the sidewalk stands at its former level; for the sidewalk and 
adjoining buildings were built on piles, and the roadway was 
not. On Van Ness avenue, between Green and Vallejo streets, 
the asphalt is buckled and cracked right across — east and west 
while the flagstones on Green street have slid northward 15 
inches over the edge of the curb. Finally, in front of the 
Ferry building, the ground has sunk three feet and the 
asphalt is cracked along a line running nearly north and south. 
These few facts were collected in the course of a four hours' 
walk and they point to one conclusion, which is confirmed by 
other evidence not necessary to detail. The site of San Fran- 
cisco included a large area of made land, reaching from about 
Montgomery street to the Bay; the city limits also included 
several swamps and creek-beds, all of which in process of 
time became filled with the material excavated from the higher 
ground. These weak spots were largely forgotten by the resi- 
dents and disregarded by builders, but they are now rendered 
prominent and their memory is revived, because at such places 
the lack of special care in construction has caused buildings 
to collapse. There was no regional subsidence in San Fran- 
cisco, as far as can be ascertained. 

The fire has obliterated much valuable evidence in regard 
to structural defects in buildings, but enough survives to tell 
a perfectly plain story. No scientifically designed and hon- 
estly built structure was injured by the earthquake; many 
well designed and dishonestly built structures suffered and 
many more that were both faulty in design and wretchedly 
built did collapse. The earthquake is a master inspector; no 
political pull, no sham masonry, no certificate of an incompe- 
tent board of works will prevent the ruthless exposure of bad 
work when Nature sets about to make a crucial test. And 
there was lots of dishonest and foolish construction in San 
Francisco, as there is in every rapidly built city anywhere on 







The Ruins of the City Hall. 



82 AFTER EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE. 

this continent or even on some of the others. Of all the archi- 
tectural frauds in San Francisco, the City Hall stood, as it fell, 
in a class by itself. During the long term of years occupied 
in the building of it, the City Hall has enriched a succession 
of contractors and it was notorious for bad work. It is a 
sorry sight; the big dome has been stripped of its stone, leav- 
ing a bird-cage of steel trusses, the roof has fallen and the 
walls have crumbled; it looks like the disheveled remains of 
a doll's house, shaken to pieces. The building that housed 
the City's administration and should have been an example of 
architectural skill and artistic taste, has collapsed miserably, 
because every stone of it was laid in putrid politics ; it is a 
disgraceful ruin, the great dome is stripped of its veneer of 
stone as thoroughly as the iniquity of the builders stands plain 
to every beholder. Let the City Hall stay as it is for twenty 
years, a monument to greed and a warning to dishonest build- 
ers — "Lest we forget" ; for in the rush and activity of a 
resourceful community, we are only too likely to discard the 
lessons of the past, and when the first hurt of the recent blow 
has healed we shall be in such a hurry as to become again 
complacent to poor construction and the condoning of dishon- 
est contractors. 

On the other hand, the structures erected by the Federal 
Government have proved their stability and the fact that they 
were in some cases provided with an artesian water supply 
also indicates a rare good sense. To these factors the com- 
munity owes the inestimable good fortune of still possessing 
a post-office and a mint that can play their necessary part in 
clearing the confusion of business caused by the recent catas- 
trophe. But there are many other buildings that exemplify 
the results of good work well done. Most of the tall office 
buildings, constructed of steel and erected on proper founda- 
tions of steel and concrete, have stood the test and will become 
the nucleus of a new hive of industrial life. Among these, the 
big Call building stands pre-eminent. To most men it had 
often suggested the question of safety during an earthquake 
and of all the proud sky-scrapers it seemed the one that most 
wantonly braved such a peril. It is sixteen stories high and 




The Call or Claus Spreckels Building. 



84 AFTER EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE. 

is surmounted by a big dome that contains three floors more. 
With a base 75 feet square, it is 300 feet high. Observers have 
spoken of telegraph poles that swayed wildly and that bent 
like a reed in the wind; what must have been the swing at 
the top of that great tower of steel and stone? Nevertheless, 
there it stands, unscathed, without a visible crack, devastated 
by the flame but triumphant over the temblor. Let us feel 
ashamed of the sordid dishonesty of the men who built the 
City Hall, but we can well afford to be proud of the scientific 
knowledge and the honest handiwork that dared — and yet not 
unwisely — to erect that splendid structure, which looks down 
today over a world of ruin and inspires the people of San 
Francisco to the proper recognition of the value of good build- 
ing construction. Look at this picture and on that! Look 
down on the ruins of the City Hall and look up to the Call 
building, standing like a monolith. Now let the new City be 
built with similar skill and with a like honesty of construction, 
so that San Francisco shall be the best example of modern 
methods, a glorious monument to the science of the engineer 
and the genius of the artist, the home of the Argonauts and 
the pride of the Pacific Coast. 



THE MISUSE OF EXPLOSIVES. 

One feature of the conflagration will interest miners and 
if they had observed it, we believe that they would agree with 
us in thorough-going condemnation. We refer to the misuse 
of explosives in blasting buildings. If it had been planned 
systematically and carried out properly much of the City 
could have been saved, but it was far otherwise. The use of 
high-grade explosives by people ignorant of their strength 
and proper application, was instrumental in destroying a vast 
amount of property without the result desired, and in many 
cases it actually spread the conflagration. The work was done 
by Dick, Tom and Harry, until the very end of the operations 
when the naval officers from Mare Island took a hand and 
directed affairs in a scientific manner. Before that the police, 
the militia and volunteer firemen used a box of dynamite where 
a pound would have sufficed, they blasted on the wrong side 
of walls and did such foolish things as placing a keg of black 
powder in the center of wooden buildings, with the result that 
they set them afire instead of bringing them to the ground. 
Spectators could see that the explosion threw up a lot of dust, 
to be followed forthwith by flame. They dynamited buildings 
already on fire and simply made an avenue for the spread of 
the conflagration instead of creating an obstacle to its advance. 
Under such conditions, the explosion scattered brands right 
and left. On Van Ness avenue there was a deplorable amount 
of damage needlessly done to handsome frame buildings by 
the use of black powder, that utterly failed of its purpose. It 
was the veering of the wind and the persistent application of 
blankets and sacking soaked in the waters found in kitchen 
boilers by heroic volunteer firemen that eventually saved the 
Western Addition. However excusable the poor judgment 
shown during a time of great strain and excitement, there was 
nothing to palliate the stupidity exhibited in the attempts to 
blast dangerous walls when the conflagration was at an end. 
While such operations were being carried out on Market 



86 AFTER EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE. 

street, there was danger to anyone within three or four blocks ; 
150 pounds of dynamite were used where as much could have 
been accomplished by five or six pounds properly applied. 
Boxes containing 50 pounds apiece were placed against a wall 
with a light cover of sand and exploded with needless waste 
and danger. A drill-hole or two properly pointed would have 
thrown the wall in any direction desired. There was plenty 
of time to do it properly. A glaring example of such blunders 
occurred at the Post Office several days after the conflagra- 
tion; this building was hardly injured by either fire or earth- 
quake, but when the amateur blasters came on the scene, they 
nearly wrecked it in their childish efforts to pull down the 
walls of the neighboring Odd Fellows building. It is officially 
stated that the foundations of the Post-Office were hurt by 
the blasting and the south side was so wrecked that the dam- 
age is estimated at $100,000. It might be supposed that with 
so many experienced mining men in the community, it would 
have been possible to get their help in work which they under- 
stood and we can state that several of our friends did volun- 
teer to give suggestions and to proffer systematic aid, but in 
vain. It is difficult to persuade a man that he does not under- 
stand what he is doing. San Francisco has reason bitterly to 
rue the misuse of the explosives that properly employed have 
proved so powerful an aid to the advancement of mining. 



EARTHQUAKE LINES. 
By W. H. Storms. 

California geologists have long since agreed that the fre- 
quent earthquake shocks felt in this State have their origin 
along well-defined lines, some of which are known. Of these 
several lines of weakness and disturbance, the most important 
and interesting is that which passes in the vicinity of San 
Francisco. 

Mountain ranges, broadly speaking, are built, either by the 
outpouring of volcanoes, the carving out by erosion of ele- 
vated plateaus, or by the slow, long-continued uplift of elon- 
gated rock masses due to the interior shrinkage of the earth, 
which causes wrinkles, as it were, to form on the surface. The 
first may be violent and spasmodic, like the recent eruption of 
Vesuvius, or the demonstration may be quiet, unaccompanied 
by explosion or destructive earthquake shock. Some of the 
volcanoes of the Hawaiian Islands are of this type, the lava 
quietly rising in the crater until it runs over, a molten stream, 
which flows down the mountain side. The erosion of an ele- 
vated tableland representing the second type, may proceed for 
thousands of years in a comparatively quiet way, gradually 
carving canyons and gulches in the rock-mass, tending con- 
stantly to reduce the elevation to the base level of erosion — the 
sea level. The third may also be of long duration, progressing 
so slowly that little or no change is noticeable during a cen- 
tury, but in time producing a marked topographical effect. 
This movement of the earth's crust is accompanied by occa- 
sional re-adjustments of the rock strata, producing what are 
really only minor tremors of the surface, but which are often 
fraught with the most serious consequences to mankind, par- 
ticularly those who chance to dwell in the vicinity of the line 
of disturbance — the earthquake line. 

This uplift of a region usually causes strains which pass 
beyond the limit of elasticity of the rocks, and a rupture re- 
sults. If the strains continue a fault or displacement takes 
place, one side of the fracture sinking relatively to the other, 



88 AFTER EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE. 

and in time — a very long time — the rising side becomes a 
mountain range. Ordinarily, so slow is this uplift and read- 
justment of the moving mass that erosion destroys, or, at 
least, greatly modifies the abrupt scarp which would other- 
wise result if the movement were quickly accomplished, until 
no one but the geologist would notice the displacement or 
understand its significance. The great Sierra Nevada of Cali- 
fornia is a magnificent illustration of mountain building by 
faulting, and the subsequent modification of its topography 
by erosion. The west side of the Sierra is a long, low slope, 
extending from the east side of the great interior valley of 
California from ioo to 500 feet above sea-level to the crest 
of the range, reaching an altitude of 10,000 to 14,000 feet, 
though probably originally much higher. Its east slope is 
almost precipitous, descending rapidly to the floor of the Great 
Basin in Nevada. That line of weakness is also an earthquake 
line, and some very heavy earthquake shocks have been felt 
in that locality within recent time, notably in March, 1872, 
when a terrific shock did much damage in the Owens River 
valley. That shock was felt for hundreds of miles, but did not 
extend as far west as the Coast range. 

It is the occasional sudden readjustment of the slowly mov- 
ing rock-mass that causes the shock, and regions along these 
lines of weakness and displacement are therefore subject to 
earthquakes. No one can predict their coming or foretell 
their intensity. It is only safe to say that they are likely to 
occur at any moment. The more frequent they are the less 
danger there appears to be of destructive shocks. Almost in- 
variably there is a series of shocks, of which the first is the 
most violent. 

The causes which in past ages have built up mountains and 
formed valleys, are still at work in exactly the same manner 
and will continue, as they have, since the dawn of creation, 
and the recognition of an earthquake line, merely means that 
geologists have discovered another mountain range in process 
of formation. 

The San Francisco earthquake line approaches the State 
from the northwest, coming from beneath the Pacific, reaching 



EARTHQUAKE LINES. 



89 



the mainland near Point Arenas, in Mendocino county, and 
follows down the coast; it has probably influenced the shape 
of the shore in that vicinity. It enters Tomales bay, in Marin 
county, and following that shallow sheet of water to its head, 
crosses a low divide to the head of Bolinas bay. The depres- 
sions occupied by these two bays are undoubtedly due to the 
fault-fissures. From the mouth of Bolinas bay the line ex- 
tends out southeasterly into the Pacific again, reaching the 




The Fairmont Hotel and Nob Hill. 



coast near Mussel Rock, in San Mateo county, several miles 
below the Cliff House, and passing inland through Lake San 
Andreas, Crystal Lake and southeastward through Los Gatos, 
Loma Prieta, near Santa Cruz, Pajaro, San Juan, lower San 
Benito valley, Peach Tree valley, Stone Canyon, Chalome 
valley, Carrisa valley, west of Sunset six or seven miles, 
through the west fork of San Emedio canyon, crossing into 
the Mohave desert west of Lancaster, in Los Angeles county, 



90 AFTER EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE. 

and continuing in a generally southeasterly direction toward 
the Gulf of California. 

Throughout this entire distance of nearly 600 miles this 
line of movement may be plainly traced by a succession of 
valleys, lakes and landslips. In several places the fault-throw 
exceeds 2,000 feet by measurement. It is thought that the 
fissure has an easterly dip and that the hanging-wall side is 
sinking relatively to the foot- wall or westerly side; it is a 
normal fault. 

The fissure in Marin county may be plainly seen and fol- 
lowed for twenty miles, where it is as well defined as a road, 
and in some places resembles a railroad cut. Since April 18, 
the ground has cracked open, bulged up or settled, and 
springs are flowing where none existed before. There seems 
to have been a very pronounced horizontal movement, in this 
locality, to the extent of at least 12 ft. A causeway, solidly 
built, across the line of faulting was broken and thrown the 
distance stated, the west side going to the north. Buildings 
constructed on the line of the earthquake were wrenched 
apart by this horizontal movement, one being a large barn, 
owned by a man named Skinner, the other being Shafter's 
creamery. In that district, as elsewhere, the greatest damage 
was done to buildings cheaply constructed on insecure foun- 
dations. Most of the wooden structures destroyed, with the 
important exception of the two above mentioned, were built 
on stilt-like timbers from one to four feet high, without diag- 
onal braces, and the buildings were simply thrown a distance 
equal to the height of the underpinning. The villages of 
Tomales, Olema, Bolinas and Inverness were completely de- 
stroyed and a tidal wave is said to have swept Tomales bay, 
which is a fan-shaped sheet of water having its broadest por- 
tion opening into the ocean. 



THE EFFECT IN MINES. 

None of the mines of the Pacific Coast suffered from a move- 
ment of rock. A day after the earthquake we wrote to the 
superintendents of a dozen representative mines asking 
whether they had observed any effect underground. The re- 
plies agree in a distinct negative. In the foot-hill region of 
the Sierra Nevada, the shock was felt only slightly even by 
those on the surface, while in the mines all was as usual, the 
occurrence passing unnoticed. At the Great Eastern quick- 
silver mine near Guerneville, three men were killed by a falling 
mass of rock that was loosened in the shaft and this accident 
occurred at the moment of the earthquake, but it has no bear- 
ing on the matter. The slight tremor precipitated a loose piece 
of rock that probably was about to fall and would have fallen 
a little later, in any event. At the time of the San Francisco 
disaster, an Associated Press telegram from Houghton, Michi- 
gan, announced that the earthquake had caused a collapse of 
ground in the Quincy copper mine, killing two miners. This 
also has no connection with the San Francisco earthquake, or 
any other such phenomenon. The copper mines of the Lake 
Superior region, more especially those having a large area of 
excavated ground, are subject to a sudden collapse of stopes, 
producing shocks that are felt keenly at surface. They are 
termed 'air-blasts,' because they are accompanied by a violent 
expulsion of the air displaced by the falling rock-walls, produc- 
ing reverberations similar in a way to those that follow a 
dynamite explosion. The causes of them were discussed in 
these columns not long ago and we can only repeat that they 
have no connection with earthquakes. All the evidence goes 
to show that as regards earth tremors, the miner is safer under- 
ground than the people in the city. 



FORMER EARTHQUAKES AND THEIR DISCARDED 

LESSONS. 

From 1865 to 1869 San Francisco and vicinity were re- 
peatedly visited by earthquake shocks, some of them severe. 
One of the most serious of these disturbances occurred on 
October 22, 1868, 'The Mining and Scientific Press' of Oc- 
tober 24, 1868, contains the following account of an earthquake 
that visited San Francisco two days previous. Some of the 
facts stated bear a remarkable similarity to those observed 
recently. 

As to facts, they can be condensed into a few paragraphs: 
"Time, 8 a. m., October 22, 1868; direction variously appre- 
hended, but pretty positively either from southeast to north- 
west or the reverse; buildings generally having been thrown 
toward the southeast; motion of the surface during the 
severest shocks more horizontal than vertical, but in some of 
the subsequent tremblings almost perfectly vertical; size and 
height of the earthquake waves, and direction and degree of 
the force relative to the earth's center unknown, for want of 
proper instruments to record the same, and comparison of 
observations in different localities; duration of the principal 
shock, about 45 seconds; weather dead calm and foggy in 
town, at Point Lobos a light breeze and hazy, as it has been 
more or less for weeks; thermometers and barometers about 
as usual. In the evening the air became beautifully clear 
and invigorating. The reported focus of severity and damage 
was, according to many observers, not far from Haywards, in 
Alameda county; it is safe to say that it was within a radius 
of 16 miles from that place. As to the degree of damage done 
to property, it can be understood only by taking a walk 
through town and observing the houses, walls, cornices and 
copings that have been thrown down. Probably not over a 
dozen buildings were utterly destroyed, but hundreds were 
left with marked evidences of injury. Lives lost, so far as 
reported at the coroner's office, six; wounded or hurt, about 
four dozen. Whether the rumbling sound accompanying the 
earthquake proceeded from the interior of the earth, or from 



EARTHQUAKES AND THEIR LESSONS. 93 

the motion of the loose bodies on the surface, was not appar- 
ent, but was settled both ways, by guess." 

In the issue of November 7, 1868, appeared the following 
advice, by George Gordon, on construction of buildings: 

First. — That extreme care be taken with foundations, no 
matter whether on solid or made ground: let the entire bed- 
frame on which the building rests be a unit, like a ship's keel, 
and strong enough to bear twice the weight of the building if 
set up on posts ten or twelve feet apart, and so tied together 
that you could lift it bodily with a derrick and swing it about. 

Second. — Dispense with the use of brick, stone or cast 
iron, except as an exterior protection against fire. Give these 
materials nothing else to do. 

Third.— Rely on timber and wrought iron entirely to carry 
the load and resist motion. Mortise all timbers and rivet all 
iron. Use boiler-plate with angle-iron riveted to it above and 
below all openings, as sills and caps. No form of iron pro- 
curable in this market is so simple, cheap and strong as these 
combined. 

Fourth. — Dispense with lath and plaster, and face the 
inside walls, and make the ceilings with tongued and grooved 
lumber. Put up every board and lay every floor so as to 
form diagonals — bracing in every direction. In nailing, put 
every nail squarely through the face of the boards and dis- 
card the carpenter's foible of blind nailing. 

Fifth. — The lower the ceilings and the more numerous the 
rooms in a building, the stronger the structure. * * * * 
It is certain that entire safety may be assured to life and 
property on solid ground by proper attention to the construc- 
tion of buildings, though we should have earthquakes as 
severe as are recorded ; and it is as certain that all improperly 
typed walls, or poor mortar and poor bricks, will be tumbled 
down to the peril of human life, as that earthquakes will occur 
as they have in the past. Especially should all walls with 
fronts veneered with stone be immediately taken down. It 
is mean and cowardly to patch up these structures and plaster 
up the broken chimneys, trusting that the shock that will hurl 
them to the dust will not come in your time, or until you have 
sold the property. 



94 AFTER EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE. 

A book published in May, 1869, entitled 'Rowland's Earth- 
quake Dangers, Causes and Palliations,' contains the fol- 
lowing introductory paragraphs: 

Truth compels the admission that a portion of California, 
including the locality around San Francisco, is, at indefinite 
periods, subjected to the action of earthquakes. It for- 
tunately so happens that the physical geography around this 
city is of such a character as to largely modify, if not wholly 
obviate, many of the dangers which are found sometimes to 
occur when earthquakes take place at or near the seaboard. 
Allusion is more particularly made to earthquake (tidal) 
waves and landslips. 

The first is found not generally destructive, excepting in 
the case of harbors immediately open to the ocean, or near 
the debouchure of bell-mouthed rivers or bays. Landlocked 
as the harbor of San Francisco is, even if an earthquake ocean 
wave 60 ft. high was to break on the outlying western shore, 
it could only penetrate into our harbor by the width of the 
narrow passage of the Golden Gate, and as it rapidly expands 
after its entrance to the north, south and east within a short 
distance from the narrowest part, and would have to travel 
some miles before its effect could be felt in San Francisco, 
ere its arrival at that point it would be much modified by the 
resistance it would have received. 

The other danger we are not likely to encounter to any 
ruinous extent, is that which might probably arise from land- 
slips, notwithstanding the extension of the city front into the 
bay from time to time, through the interested influence of 
speculating land-grabbers with former legislatures; as much 
as possible has been accomplished to bring about such unde- 
sirable events as landslips. Owing to the fact that our bay 
is a comparatively shallow one, we are not likely to witness a 
newly and solidly constructed wharf, as in the case of the 
earthquake at Lisbon, destroyed and replaced by deep water 
in consequence of a landslip. Though partial Assuring 
among the unstable ground of our water lots may take 
place, and irregular shrinking and elevation of foundations 
so situated may occur, sufficiently so as to be calculated 



EARTHQUAKES AND THEIR LESSONS. 



95 



seriously to damage massive and elevated brick or stone 
structures which may be erected on such made and generally 
unconsolidated ground; but a serious landslip need not be 
apprehended. 

In fact, as is well known to its residents, the damage caused 




Southwest Corner of the Post-office. 



by earthquakes at San Francisco and around its bay almost 
wholly took place on alluvial soil, or made ground, as at 
Lisbon, the South American cities, and many other places; 
the next greatest amount of damage having occurred where 
buildings had been erected on foundations most nearly allied, 
in character to those just noticed. 



A STORY IN STONE. 

By T. A. Rickard. 

Look at it for a moment. Nearly oval in outline, warm gray 
in color, it has a surface of irregular texture suggesting that 
it is composed of minerals of different hardness which have 
been worn unevenly. It is a piece of granite. Without the 
aid of a magnifying glass you can see the clear blue-gray of 
the grains of quartz, the pink-white of the particles of feld- 
spar and the shifting gleam of the bright spangles of mica. It 
is a waif from the mountains that overlook Denver, in Col- 
orado ; a stray bit of stone that was out of place on the tennis 
court where I picked it up, several years ago. Investigation 
proved that it came thither amid the sandy loam employed 
in preparing the smooth surface necessary to the finish of a 
good tennis court. The material used for this purpose came 
from certain excavations in a neighboring street where a 
successful mine-owner was building himself a mansion. Orig- 
inally, long before Denver existed, even before the buffalo 
or the Indian roamed over the prairie, this pebble was swept 
down from the mountains by the flood-waters of the river 
Platte, which in receding, left the deposits of sand and clay 
now forming the foundations of the city. As a child wander- 
ing over the beach, picks up a shell and putting it to her ear, 
listens while the wind plays through the delicate portals of 
pink and white, and hears a voice like the murmur of the sea 
that tells of strange things far beneath the wave, so we also 
may listen while this pebble mutters to us garrulously, and 
tells of its distant home and future destiny. If time can be- 
stow nobility then indeed this bit of stone may command 
respect. The life of a generation is to the age of this pebble 
as a dewdrop to the sea. When the morning stars sang 
together, it held up the foundations of the round world; and 
when man was yet an unthinking savage, it crowned the crest 
of the mighty mountains. Its birth belongs to the begin- 
ning of days and its childhood was chilled by the cold of the 
earliest dawn. To trace its origin we must penetrate through 



A STORY IN STONE. 97 

the mists of a dim remoteness guided only by that fairy of 
science which men call the constructive imagination. We 
judge of that which has taken place long ago by that which 
we see occurring today. The surface of the earth is the play- 
ground of a number of natural forces which have been at 
work since the beginning. The intensity of their activity 
has varied, but the method of their manifestation has been 
the same, because they are the expression of definite laws. 
Thus it is that the unseen frost which cleaves the mountain 
summit, the torrent that sweeps the shattered rock into the 
river which bears them onward, to lay them in the quiet 
depths of the ocean, indicate to us today how this pebble was 
formed in the ages past, when that mountain was an island 
and that river as yet unborn. 

Draw back the veil of ages and look at the Earth as it was 
in the morning of time. A heavy silence broods over the dim 
vastness of the ocean; upon the frowning coast no bird sings 
and no flower grows ; the winds wander over the leafless lands 
and stir the waters of desolate seas. There is no life, there is 
no sound of man or beast, there is naught save a weird ex- 
pectancy that fills all Nature as in that hour when the dark- 
ness is paling before the whispering of dawn. The earth is 
very still, like an infant asleep. Into a quiet inlet a streamlet 
is falling. It is singing to the sleeping earth, telling it of the 
days to come when the great silence shall be broken by the 
voice of man, and life shall fill alike the darkling wave and 
the sunlit field. The waters of the streamlet mingle with the 
sullen surges, and bring to them the tribute of the river to 
the sea; not gold or silver is it, but grains of sand and bits 
of rock borne downward from distant hills. At times, when 
the wind blows and the rain falls heavily, the waters are 
deeply laden with dark clouds of silt and hasten to the sea as 
though eager to be unburdened. The sand, the bits of rock 
and the burden of mud are each delivered to the ocean, to be 
deposited in ordered sequence upon its outspread floor. This 
was the seed time when were laid down the unlike particles 
which Earth's alchemy should eventually transmute from silt 
and sand into crystalline granite. The epoch of which I 



98 AFTER EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE. 

speak is the oldest of which geology takes cognizance, it is 
vaguely called Archean; so remote is it that no trace of even 
the elementary forms of organic life have survived, if they 
existed; so distant that man was not, nor was the footstep 
of his oncoming heard ; so long ago that Time, like the school- 
boy who rubs the figures off a slate, has passed his oblitera- 
ting hand over the faint record written on the rocks and left 
no sign behind. The record has indeed been rubbed out, but 
modern inductive science can restore the writing. We ob- 
serve Nature's handiwork today and thus infer her method in 
that geologic past. This is the key to all geological research. 

To return to our story. The burden of the river was laid 
down upon the bed of the sea. More material of the same 
kind covered it. This process of deposition and accumulation 
went on for a period to measure which the years are useless 
as units. It took place with the patient slowness that ever 
seems so admirable to man, whose brief life is but a span, 
whose existence one unseemly haste. The filling of the ocean 
by the waste of the land is a matter of every-day observation. 
The transfer of rock to the sea, by rain, rivulet and river, has 
been the subject of careful investigation and measurement. 
By estimating the quantity of sediment carried down to the 
sea by such rivers as the Mississippi, the Rhine, and the 
Ganges, it has been determined that the level of the surface 
of the continental areas is being lowered at the rate of one 
foot in six thousand years. This estimate takes account of 
only such material as is transported mechanically by the 
rivers, and to this must be added an amount, nearly as large, 
carried in solution. The latter consists mostly of lime 
which, being secreted by the multitudinous minute organ- 
isms of the deep sea, eventually leads to the building up of 
the huge thickness of limestone rocks so characteristic of 
lovely mountain-lands, such as Derbyshire and Savoy. 

Thus an enormous depth of sediment was gradually laid 
down, covering those earlier silts and sands, wherein lay the 
elements of the pebble. The deep canyons of Colorado, made 
by the mountain torrents, afford natural sections of the 
earth's exterior and make it evident that the granite of the 



A STORY IN STONE. 



Archean period was overlaid by other rock-masses several 
miles in thickness. At no one place do we see the complete 
succession of sediments, because wind and water, rain and 
snow, have been at work wearing them away during the ages 
that have passed since they emerged from beneath the wave; 
nor do we find a simple horizontal bedded series of them in 
any place, because of the twisting and tilting which they have 
undergone. This folding is due to the cooling of the earth's 
exterior and can be explained on the rough analogy of an 
apple, the skin of which shrinks and crumples as it dries. 
Thus the granite from which the pebble came, was formerly 
covered by, a thickness of rock exceeding the height of our 
highest mountains. Such a succession of sediments could not 
be laid down unless we suppose the ocean-floor to have sunk 
at a slow rate at least equal in amount to the rate of the 
deposition of the material. Otherwise the filling of the basin 
occupied by the sea would put a summary end to the process 
of accumulation. 

Such a supposition is borne out by evidence obtainable 
today. Proof of a depression of certain parts of the earth's 
exterior is to be found in the submerged forests which occur, 
for instance, along the east coast of England. It is but a 
geologic yesterday (the Pliocene period) that the Rhine 
flowed across (what is now) the bed of the North Sea and 
emptied itself within British boundaries. Conditions such as 
have been described, prevailed in the particular case we are 
considering. The floor of the Archean sea sunk slowly, while 
a great thickness of sediment was deposited. The lowermost 
layers became hardened and consolidated by the weight of 
those above them. The material destined to make the pebble, 
lay buried in the darkness of the underworld. Heat and pres- 
sure transformed the soft silt into crystalline rock. The 
transformation was brought about with an infinite slowness 
and amid an obscurity into which science cannot quite pene- 
trate. We do know that at great depths below the surface of 
the earth, the temperature is very high. This fact has been 
indicated by observations made in the sinking of shafts and 
wells. The average of a large number of careful determina- 



100 AFTER EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE. 

tions proves that there is an increase of one degree Fahrenheit 
for every 48 feet of descent. At a depth of less than ten 
thousand feet we would therefore find a temperature equal to 
that at which water boils at sea-level. At the same horizon 
the pressure from the overlying rock-masses would be equal 
to about 4500 pounds per square inch. It is certain, more- 
over, that the rock which, in the after ages, gave us this 
pebble, was at one time buried under a thickness of sediments 
far exceeding that just mentioned. 

Thus long ages followed each other. The depression of 
the ocean-bed ceased, and deposition came to an end. A 
movement of elevation began. Somewhere else, doubtless, 
a sinking of the earth's exterior helped to counterbalance it. 
Nature knows not idleness. Upbuilding compensates for de- 
struction, distribution corrects excessive accumulation. 
Islands commenced to dot the wide expanse of the ancient 
sea. The material of the pebble, however, was yet far be- 
neath the waves and formed an humble part of those islands 
that in time became the summits of the mountain range 
which now keeps guard over Denver. The slow elevation of 
land continued. As the sea receded, the islands grew both 
in number and in size until at length they were united into 
a large mass of land. The evidence of the elevation of parts 
of the earth's surface is similar in kind to that already given 
in support of the statement that depression takes place else- 
where. The Pacific side of South America is rising at the 
present day. On the coast of Norway, at an elevation of 600 
feet above the sea, there exist terraces which, from the evi- 
dence afforded by the marine shells that they contain, have 
been proved to be raised beaches belonging to a geological age 
approaching our own times. Observations have shown that 
the Scandinavian coast is being elevated at a mean rate of 
2^/2 feet per century. The maximum rate, at the North Cape, 
is nearly twice as much. Similarly, the land of the Arctic 
region is also undergoing rapid emergence from the sea. 

In this way the land gradually made its appearance above 
the face of the waters. During this long time of waiting 
the particles of the pebble had been subjected to the silent 



A STORY IN STONE. 101 

forces continually at work in Nature's underground labora- 
tory, so that from sand had come crystalline quartz, from 
shapeless mud had sprung clear flakes of mica, and out of 
disordered silt there had been formed an orderly arrange- 
ment of elements composing crystals of feldspar. The rock 
had been prepared with an infinite patience for that later day, 
when, from lying buried in the footstool of the earth and 
hidden in the gloom of the ocean depths, it should stand on 
the top of the wrinkled hills and crown the very summit 
of the mighty mountains. 

Then at length, the rock of our pebble emerged from the 
sea. As soon as the land arose above the ocean there began 
that wearing down of the rocks which we term erosion. Tear- 
ing down and building up go hand in hand in the inorganic, 
as life and death in the organic world. The wind and rain, 
the frost of night, and the heat of day, were the agents which 
slowly removed the upper portions of the successive beds of 
rock which still covered the material of the pebble. After 
an interval of comparative repose the movement of elevation 
re-commenced. The island became a continent, the hill be- 
came the crest of the mountain range. The sun and snow, 
the ice and rain, are the patient tools that sculpture the 
shapeless mass of rock and chisel out the mountain's form. 
Our pebble became part of a granite peak. There it remained 
for untold years, a portion of a solitary pyramid of stone, day 
after day throwing the same clear shadow across the waste 
of waters, while the centuries went by as the unregarded 
sand that is tossed by the wandering winds of the desert. 

Time, an ocean of time, flowed by. The vast duration of 
many a geological period passed away. The waters still 
washed the eastern side of the mountains and the sovereign 
desolation of the sea covered the prairies of Colorado and 
Nebraska. Even today if you ascend the Front range and 
look to the east, the unbroken line of the horizon and the 
witchery of distance will change the dull dreariness of the 
plains into the ocean's alpine azure. 

At length, in that comparatively recent period known as 
the Cretaceous, the elevatory movement culminated and the 



102 AFTER EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE. 

granite peaks gained their maximum height. The sea so long 
at their feet receded, and its floor became a level plain. At a 
much later period, however, at a time when the Rhine flowed 
through the eastern part of England, the depression of a cer- 
tain portion of this area resulted in the formation of a great 
fresh-water lake which overspread the present site of Denver. 
Think of it as it was then, a wide waste of waters that in 
storm dashed vainly against the battlemented cliffs that now 
overlook the towns of Boulder and Golden, and in calm, re- 
flected the severe grandeur of those peaks which were the 
silent sentinels that guarded the treasures of Colorado when 
the Spaniard came, and are now the minarets of snow that 
end the picturesque perspective of Denver's streets. 

The material of the pebble still rested on the mountain top. 
It typified those things which out of weakness are made 
strong. What was once soft sediment had become crystalline 
rock; once abased in the deep, it was now exalted above all 
the earth and "out of the substance of it the axe of God had 
hewn an Alpine tower." Long ages it stood on high, fronting 
the dawn and glowing in the sunset; beneath it the mighty 
hills bowed in serried lines, and far below the prairies faded 
away in tremulous blue. 

But its destiny was yet unfulfilled. There came a day when 
a mightier power than the storm, a more resistless force than 
the wind tore away a fragment of that mountain peak and 
the original of this pebble rattled down the dark ravine and 
fell upon the snowy surface of a majestic glacier. A drop of 
the rain of heaven had found a resting place in a cranny of 
the rock, the cold of night and the heat of day had alternately 
contracted and expanded this particle of water, so as to make 
it a resistless lever which had wrenched the stubborn rock and 
sent the fragments headlong down the cliff. There is a 
lesson here. The natural forces which command our atten- 
tion, are not the mightiest. The unseen hand of the frost is 
tenfold stronger than the raging torrent. Many a volcano in 
its sudden and catastrophic outpouring of molten rock fails 
by such fitful activity to eject as much material as the thermal 
spring whose stream, bubbling daily for centuries, delivers 



A STORY IN STONE. 



103 



an unvarying quantity of salts dissolved in its beneficent 
waters. The daily tribute seems insignificant, but the total 
is more than the outpouring of a Vesuvius. 

The glacier received the stone and carried it forward in 
majestic advance through the long files of onlooking moun- 
tains, until, at the opening of a sunlit valley it was delivered 
to the stream, the waters of which were fed by the melting 
ice. Borne along, now more rapidly, partly pushed and 
partly carried, it became worn by attrition so as to lose its 
sharp edges and to assume its present shape. The chip of 
rock broken from the mountain crest became the pebble of 
the stream. Rest it had none, continually traveling onward 
and downward, sometimes lingering at the bottom of a quiet 
pool while the trout darted past, sometimes making sweet 
music as it played among the harpstrings of dark water that 
fell down the sunless ravine, but journeying ever onward to 
fulfil its destiny. 

The mountain torrent delivered it to the river; the Platte 
received it, and bore it to the plain. 

Then came a day when the heavens were darkened by 
hurrying stormclouds, when lightning flashed from peak to 
peak, when floods of warm rain fell upon the snowfields and 
every rivulet became a river, every river a boiling torrent, 
when a great rush of water swept down from the mountains 
and spreading over the plains, covered them with the sand 
and gravel in which our pebble was found. 

But the end is not yet. That pebble, like all created things, 
has a course to run and a destiny to fulfill. It must return 
to the condition from which it came, and so complete the 
cycle of change. We cannot stay its wandering, we may put 
it on a shelf or throw it into a corner, but it will fulfill its 
purpose nevertheless. The day will come when we shall be 
deemed "ancients of the earth," and this geologic age in which 
we live will recede into the distance to become the "morning 
of the times". to those that follow. Then this pebble, shivered 
by the frost of night and shattered by the heat of day, will 
again be resolved into fragments, to be gathered by the rain 
and given to the river; and the river will bear them to the 



104 AFTER EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE. 

ocean where they shall again "sow the dust of continents to 
be." 

This ends the story. There is poetry even among the pages 
of geology. The history of this globe of ours is a grand epic 
the cantos of which cover geologic periods of vast duration. 
The ancients felt this, for they loved to speak of the earth 
as a sentient being whose changes were typified in their own 
lives. Much of that simple feeling has come back to us in 
spite of the artificiality of modern days, and has been voiced 
by the great poet of our time. 

"There rolls the deep where grew the tree, 
O Earth, what changes hast thou seen! 
There where the long street roars hath been 
The stillness of the central sea." 



EDITORIAL. 

May 19, 1906. 

The recent catastrophe in California demonstrates once 
more the superiority of the miner's product as a medium of 
exchange. Thousands of dollars of paper money have been 
lost to the owners; and not only this, but those same thous- 
ands have been presented to the banks that issued the money. 
When a paper bill is destroyed the owner loses and the bank 
that issued it gains. The destroyed bill can never be pre- 
sented to the bank for redemption. 



The daily press states that the wife of ex-Governor James 
Budd has foretold another catastrophe and it is claimed that 
she predicted the recent disturbance. Such statements after 
the event are not uncommon; so many people foretell things 
and they foretell so many different things that like the shot 
from a 'scatter gun' something is sure to be hit. It appears 
that despite her belief in an impending cataclysm, the lady 
in question bought a $1500 piano two days before April 18. 
We are informed that the lady possesses a private observa- 
tory, for she uses a strong glass whereby she "keeps tab on 
the peculiar antics of several stars" that have stayed up late 
and otherwise misbehaved. As to the "strong glass," — that 
is a fruitful stimulent to soothsaying; but we want to know 
whether it was Scotch or Bourbon. 

The days of soothsayers are evidently numbered; the time 
was when prophesies of disaster, especially such as emanated 
from elderly ladies, were calculated to create a panic. There 
was Mother Shipton who scared the ignorant in the year 
1 88 1 and now there is this Mrs. Budd in California who has 
predicted fearful things. All the daily papers quote her, so it 
must necessarily be true. But the spread of an elementary 
knowledge of natural phenomena has given men the chance 
to think intelligently on these matters and no foolish talk will 
now distress the general run of people as it used to do twenty- 



106 AFTER EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE. 

five years ago. The good sense and the recovery from dis- 
aster so noteworthy in our midst during the past four weeks, 
are to be credited to the spread of scientific knowledge — 
enough of it at least to give mental balance even when the 
earth reels and the skies seem afire. 



In a recent issue we referred to the fact that, as far as 
known, no mine in California has suffered injury underground 
from the earthquake. It appears that this holds true of the 
oil-wells although the casings of deep artesian water-wells 
in the Santa Clara valley suffered fracture. There were a few 
breaks in the pipe-lines of the Coalinga district, but these were 
quickly repaired and entailed only slight loss of oil. There 
were minor breaks also between Coalinga and Monterey, and 
near Salinas, but there was no damage to the wells themselves. 
The oil production of the State is about 20,000,000 barrels per 
annum, worth about $6,000,000 at the wells and costing the 
consumer a dollar per barrel. As this product of the State 
has proved an important factor in lessening the cost of fuel 
necessary for generating power in our manufacturing indus- 
tries, the preservation of the oil-wells and pipe-lines is gratify- 
ing news. 



EARTHQUAKE SOUNDS. 

There is no question as to the fact that earthquakes are 
audible before they are felt. We noted this on April 18, not 
in case of the big shock, when our faculties were otherwise 
engaged, but in connection with several later movements on 
the same day. Other trustworthy evidence has been secured 
since. An intelligent lady who had experienced the earth- 
quake of 1868, being awake, at 5 a. m. on April 18, 1906, 
heard the sound of the oncoming disturbance; it seemed to 
her like the sound of a mighty rushing wind and knowing 
what it presaged, she instantly alarmed the inmates of the 
house. As they escaped outdoors, the tremor came; it shook 
the earth so that they found it hard to stand and in the 
meadows close-by the live oaks swung from side to side so as 
to touch the ground. In the City, several men who happened to 
be out-doors early on that morning, found it impossible to 
keep their feet, while a ripple of movement — a sardonic smile 
— passed over the face of the earth. Others have testified to 
the noise preceding the arrival of the shock; it varied in in- 
tensity according to the distance from the line of actual frac- 
ture. This traversed, among other localities, the canyon of 
Los Gatos, in the Santa Cruz mountains. A trustworthy wit- 
ness living there, informs us that there was a rumble and a 
roar like cannonading and that it was "defeaning." We also 
have professional testimony. Mr. John B. Farish, a mining 
engineer known to our readers, offers valuable evidence on 
this point. He says: "On the eventful Wednesday morning 
I was awakened by a loud rumbling noise which might be 
compared to the mixed sounds of a strong wind rushing 
through a forest and the breaking of waves against a cliff. 
In less time than it takes to tell, a concussion, similar to that 
caused by the near-by explosion of a huge blast, shook the 
building (the St. Francis hotel) to its foundations and then 
began a series of the liveliest motions imaginable, accom- 
panied by a creaking, grinding, rasping sound, followed by 
tremendous crashes as the cornices of adjoining buildings 



108 AFTER EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE. 

and chimneys tottered to the ground." The first of these 
seismic sounds are referable to the rupture of the rock and the 
subsequent shifting of the broken parts. Sound travels faster 
in rock than in air. In air the speed is only 1,100 feet per sec- 
ond. It is stated that the earthquake of April 18 was felt at 
Tokio ii minutes later than at San Francisco, but this does 
not mean much until further data indicate at what point the 
shock originated. It may have been under the Pacific ocean, 
and in that case the local movement along the old fault-plane 
in the Santa Cruz mountains would be accessory to a bigger 
fact. According to good authority, the small earth-waves 
that make the sounds, travel faster than the big vibrations 
that cause the shock, the difference in speed being due to the 
fact that they pass through an imperfectly coherent medium. 
From the sifting of plentiful data, it was ascertained that 
the Charleston quake had a velocity of 5,184 meters per sec- 
ond, or 190 miles per minute. The average velocity of the big 
shocks was 120 miles, while that of the tremors was 180 
miles per minute. On the other hand the velocity of sound 
in granite is 15,000 to 18,000 feet per second, or 170 to 200 
miles per minute. This seems to explain why the rumble and 
roar of a big earthquake precede the shock. 



MISUSE OF DYNAMITE. 

In regard to the misuse of dynamite during the conflagra- 
tion in San Francisco and the blasting operations afterward, 
we have received several letters endorsing the criticism ap- 
pearing in these columns two weeks ago. Mr. Frank A. 
Leach, the superintendent of the Mint, informs us that he 
offered to supply the services of experienced men, but the 
individuals doing the blasting claimed that they understood 
the use of explosives in demolishing buildings better than 
any miners. Mr. Leach now possesses a piece of iron weigh- 
ing a quarter of a pound that landed in the court of the Mint 
when a blast was fired in the Phelan building several blocks 
away. Other similar pleasant projectiles were hurled to the 
same spot from other blasts far away. In contrast to the fool- 
ish doings of the amateur miners, we quote an instance of the 
intelligent — and therefore safe — use of explosives in remov- 
ing masonry. When electric power was installed at the Mint 
in place of steam and the 150-horsepower engine, which was 
placed on the main floor of the building, was removed, the 
huge foundation of brick-work laid in cement, which filled 
the space in the basement underneath, was useless, and, room 
being needed, the superintendent concluded to remove it. It 
was a solid mass about 30 feet long, nearly 20 feet wide, and 
12 feet high. Mr. Leach put some men at work with picks, 
gads and hammers, but they made so little headway that it 
began to appear a hopeless task, when one of the Mint em- 
ployees, Andrew Cuneo, came along and said that if Mr. 
Leach would allow him to use dynamite he could guarantee 
to tear the foundation down in good time. He was asked if 
he was sure he would not damage the building. He replied 
by saying that he would not only not damage the building, 
but would not break a pane of glass of the three windows 
situated not more than six feet away. He was allowed to 
proceed with the undertaking, and fulfilled all his assertions. 
This story confirms what we have said, that dynamite is a 
safe and wonderfully effective agency in experienced hands, 
and it needs no further remark from us to emphasize the in- 
efficiency and danger of powerful explosives when employed 
by the inexperienced. 



CALIFORNIA'S OPPORTUNITY. 

The destruction of San Francisco is a calamity of such 
magnitude that few realize the problems which reconstruc- 
tion involves. Fully seven square miles of the best and most 
substantially built portion of the city is destroyed. Here and 
there stand buildings practically uninjured — constructed of 
steel, brick, and stone, — but by far the greater portion of this 
area, say about 95%, is a vast ruin marked by foundations, 
fragments of walls, and tottering chimneys, with occasionally 
a tangled mass of steel, iron and earthy structural material. 
It has been determined, once and for all, which material best 
resists the terrific heat of a general conflagration. Granite 
structures, or such portions of buildings as were built of gran- 
ite, spawled or crumbled under the blast, until the stone looks 
now as if it nad been subjected to the action of weathering 
influences for centuries. Square blocks of granite were re- 
duced to rounded boulder-like forms, their outer portions 
crumbling to coarse sand. Marble pillars were quickly con- 
verted into caustic lime. Even sandstone ordinarily well 
suited to withstand fire, cracked and crumbled before the fiery 
blast. Steel and iron were warped or bent, and in some in- 
stances they were even melted. Nothing resisted the intense 
heat but good brick. This is no new experience. Chicago, 
Boston, Baltimore and other cities that have been devastated 
by fire, all have proved that nothing better withstands the 
advance of a conflagration than a solid dead wall of red brick. 
There were many substantial buildings of steel, brick, stone 
and tiling in the burned district; they were supposed to be 
fireproof, but in several instances these were scattered singly 
among blocks of frame structures the burning of which cre- 
ated a heat so fierce that even those materials ordinarily con- 
sidered non-combustible, and proof against fire, went down 
before it, as though charged into a blast furnace. 

What of the future? Without the slightest hesitation, the 
men of San Francisco have decided that the city shall be 
rebuilt ; and it will be, as fast as the material can be supplied. 
The city must be made safe not only against earthquake 



CALIFORNIA'S OPPORTUNITY. Ill 

shock, but against the possibility of another great fire. It 
has been shown that a proper regard for solidity of construc- 
tion in both foundations and superstructure, with the employ- 
ment of good materials and honest work, will withstand the 
effect of earthquakes even of a severity as great as that of 
April 1 8. Little damage was done to the Federal buildings 
in San Francisco, for these were honestly constructed of 
first-class material, while more showy but less substantial 
structures were severely damaged. The walls of one build- 
ing, for example, on Haight and Webster streets, though 
solidly built of stone, prove to be little better than a pile of 
loosely cemented rubble, neatly pointed on the outside. Large 
portions of such so-called stone walls were destroyed. The 
Palace Hotel, though not strictly modern, was solidly built 
of brick with many interior walls and partitions. The damage 
to this building was due almost wholly to fire, proving that 
brick structures, even with much less steel than is used in 
modern buildings, are practically proof against earthquakes, 
but not against the effect of acres of fiercely flaming wooden 
structures amid which they may be situated. 

San Francisco must be rebuilt substantially. The proper 
materials for construction are steel, iron, brick and stone. 
Upon these points all are agreed, but the most serious prob- 
lem is to secure sufficient material to carry on the work 
promptly. There is no lack of energy and determination to 
rebuild, and there will be no shortage of money for the pur- 
pose; but whence can the materials be obtained with reason- 
able promptitude? 

Naturally the East is expected to supply the steel and 
iron; California alone is able to provide much, if not all, of 
the brick, terra-cotta, and stone; while California, Oregon 
and Washington will furnish the lumber. Lumber is the most 
readily obtainable, and this fact may again lead to the use 
of too large an amount of inflammable stuff. Much of the 
brick from the destroyed buildings can be cleaned and used 
again; indeed, this must be done from necessity, for other- 
wise it would take too long to make the quantity required; 
as it is, the brick-yards and terra-cotta works of California 



112 AFTER EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE. 

and neighboring States will have to run at their fullest capa- 
city for years to supply the demand from San Francisco alone. 
The most serious problem is how to secure the necessary 
steel and iron as fast as wanted. Every mill in the East that 
makes structural shapes is said to be from one to two years 
behind on its orders. Even before the fire it was difficult to 
get steel fast enough to continue steadily the construction 
of large buildings. Here is the real obstacle. Reconstruction 
cannot proceed without steel and iron in large quantities. If 
the East cannot supply what is required, the remedy is plain. 
The necessary structural steel must be made on the Pacific 
Coast. It is well known that large deposits of iron ore are 
available. Heretofore it has been argued that the time had 
not arrived when local iron furnaces and rolling mills could 
compete successfully with those in the East. The present 
situation upsets such an argument. The iron mines of Cali- 
fornia, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, Utah and Mexico can 
supply the ore; a great and permanent industry may now 
safely be established here. Several methods of producing 
iron are available; the ordinary blast-furnace practice of the 
East; the making of blooms in reverberatories, oil being em- 
ployed as fuel; furthermore, the advocates of the electric fur- 
nace have a grand opportunity, and the same may be said 
of the enthusiasts who have written so much about the value 
of the iron sand of this Coast as raw material for the manu- 
facture of iron. Now is the time to prove it! Heretofore the 
main drawback to the founding of a steel industry was the 
lack of a local market; that market has been created sud- 
denly; a great opportunity has arrived. The iron ore is here 
and can be made accessible; California produces 20,000,000 
barrels of crude petroleum annually; therefore a cheap fuel 
is available. Why should not San Francisco make her own 
structural steel? 



LONDON COMMENT. 

The London 'Spectator,' the paper rendered illustrious by 
Addison and Steele, founded 150 years before San Francisco 
existed, has this to say of our misfortune : The dominant note 
of the news from San Francisco has been one of unconquer- 
able optimism. 

The salient fact is the immediate decision to rebuild, to 
resume again the ordinary routine of life as soon as human 
effort can make it possible, upon the same spot, under the 
same skies, on the very foundations even which lie with their 
superstructures in dust above them. Is it reasoned decision, 
or mere impulse, which underlies that sudden determination? 
If there is reasoning, it would seem to be that what has only 
happened once will not happen again. The earthquake of 
1868, in the words of one of the sufferers, "was nothing more 
than the rocking of a child's cradle," as compared with the 
earthquake of 1906. "There is no record of a great city hav- 
ing been twice destroyed by convulsion or eruption ; the earth 
will not heave again, or, if it does, it will be at a time so dis- 
tant that the contingency need not be considered." And so 
the plans go forward. If all the arguments are pressed home, 
the outstanding conclusion must be the essential sanity of the 
decision which determines upon reconstruction in the face 
of all hazards. For what are the alternatives? In which direc- 
tion is safety to be sought? Away from the latitudes in which 
earthquakes tear down cities? But can those latitudes be 
limited? For, remember, the knowledge possessed by man 
of the causes of earthquakes is, and will possibly always re- 
main, extremely small. All that can be said to be known, 
that is, apparently rightly reasoned from certain premises, is 
that the planet on which we live has cooled down from a 
glowing mass of molten matter, and is still cooling; that dur- 
ing the lapse of unnumbered and innumerable aeons the 
almost cold crust has clothed itself with the power of giving 
and supporting life; and that of all living beings it has been 
ordained that man alone shall be able to understand and rea- 
son about the vast laws of his existence. He is allowed to 
build huge cities where he pleases, to carve the thin stone 
under him to pile up palaces a hundred feet high, with more 



114 AFTER EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE. 

than forty million feet of unknowable matter between him 
and his fellow palace-builder the other side of the globe. 
Beneath the ground he treads, it may be but one short mile 
away, huge forces wake and sleep, move and are still; some 
unseen power shifts uneasily, writhes and rolls, and the caked 
coating above quakes as a bog-crust might shiver over a 
buried bull. Under which spot of all the surface over which 
he may roam will the monster writhe next? He cannot tell 
that; he knows only that here and there, during the few hun- 
dred years of which he has record, may be found tracts of 
land which hitherto have not been shaken, or have been 
shaken only slightly. What he does not know is whether 
the same laws which have hitherto prevailed can be counted 
on to prevail for the future. And if he does not know that — 
if, that is, he cannot stamp his foot on a square yard of 
ground and say, "Here at least it is certain that the earth will 
never be riven," is it not just as sane to rebuild where build- 
ings have been shattered as to build afresh where no build- 
ings have stood? 

The builder will face that risk in his own way. He may 
watch his houses overwhelmed by the resistless march of 
lava, and with easy fatalism the next day sip wine over their 
ruins. Or, with the alert sanity of a nation buoyant in her 
belief in her mission of work, he may set himself with steady 
energy to make better what was good before, to use his broken 
buildings to teach himself lessons of knitting more soundly 
stone and steel and wood, to set together a new city, greater, 
compacter, and cleaner than the old. That is the task which 
has been set the San Franciscans by the genius of the great 
nation to which they belong. It is the genius of the American 
nation to grasp essential points, to rise greater than calami- 
ties, as though calamities gave wings or spurs; the greater 
the need for decision and courage, the greater capacity 
emerges for bravery and action. The descendant of the col- 
onists who faced a new world with fresh thought and untired 
arms, in the crash of misfortune 

"Turns his keen, untroubled face 
Home to the instant need of things." 



LONDON COMMENT. 



115 



With the deep sympathy that has been felt by the English- 
speaking race for the sufferers in the ordeal of the last ten 
days there is yet mixed a high pride in the recognition of the 
qualities of cool steadfastness, courage, and strength which 
have nerved those who have sustained the greatest losses, and 





i 


_ . : ; ■ ;; 




»mm£ .- -"<*■ ^WfiBK,^ 




ffe 




..." "..' -'■■ ■ .-: 


.-r? -"-" 







The Ruined City as seen from Clay and Leavenworth Streets. 

which are admired above and beyond other great and abiding 
qualities by their kinsmen. 



EARTHQUAKES IN GREAT BRITAIN. 

In a recent issue of 'The Nineteenth Century,' there is an 
interesting article on 'Earthquakes in Great Britain.' We 
quote a portion of it: 

At places near the center of disturbance, the first sign of 
the coming earthquake is a low sound like the sudden rising 
of the wind. Almost immediately a faint trembling begins, 
such as is felt on a railway platform when an express train 
rushes by. Rapidly this increases in strength, the sound be- 
comes louder, more rumbling and grating in character, and 
resembling that produced by the rapid passage of a traction- 
engine or a heavy motor-car. It is a sound so deep as almost 
to be more felt than heard. Then, after the lapse of four or 
five seconds from the start, the tremors merge into sharp 
rapid vibrations, accompanied by loud explosive crashes in 
the midst of the rumbling sound. These may last for two or 
three seconds, after which the vibrations shade off again into 
tremors, the sound becomes a mere rumbling and finally all 
movement ceases, the sound dying away as a low monotonous 
groan like the last roll of very distant thunder. Farther away, 
at distances of from 50 to 100 miles from the center, the phe- 
nomena are much simpler. There is no change in the nature 
of the sound, which merely increases in strength with the 
tremor, and then both die away together. The movement is, 
however, less rapid and jolting, and more like that felt in a 
carriage with good springs traveling over an uneven road. 

Nineteen out of every twenty earthquakes in this country 
are fairly represented by the above descriptions. The remain- 
ing earthquakes are somewhat more complex. The shock 
consists of two distinct parts separated by an interval of two 
or three seconds, each part being similar to the shock of a 
simple earthquake. In some, the two parts are connected at 
places near the center by a weak, tremulous motion, which, at 
a short distance, becomes imperceptible; in others, the inter- 
val between the two parts is everywhere one of absolute rest 
and quiet. The parts generally differ slightly in duration and 
intensity, and occasionally in the nature of their vibrations. 



EARTHQUAKES IN GREAT BRITAIN. 



117 



To earthquakes of this class, the name of 'twin' has been 
given, because, as will be seen, the double shock is due to 
two distinct impulses resulting from a single generative effort. 
The strongest earthquakes in this country are just capable 
of producing slight damage to buildings. Others are strong 
enough to overthrow ornaments and vases, or to make pic- 




The Effect of Fire on Granite. 



tures and chandeliers swing, to give a perceptible movement 
to the observer's seat, to make doors, windows, etc., rattle, 
or, finally, to be just perceptible to a person at rest. The 
waves of any earthquake, as they radiate outward from the 
origin, pass gradually through these different degrees of in- 



118 AFTER EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE. 

tensity. Knowing the degree at a large number of places, it 
is possible to draw on the map of an earthquake a series of 
isoseismal lines, or lines of equal intensity. Rough though 
this scale of intensity may be, it would be difficult to over- 
estimate the service which it has rendered in the investiga- 
tion of earthquakes. 

In any earthquake, the outer isoseismal lines are nearly 
circular in form, while the inner curves are elongated (approx- 
imately in the same direction), the innermost curve of all 
being as a rule the most elongated. It is, however, when con- 
sidered in connection with the geological structure of the dis- 
tricts that the significance of these elongated isoseismal lines 
becomes apparent. Their longer axes are then found to be 
parallel, or nearly so, to the axes of the great crust-folds of 
the underlying rocks. The initiation of these folds dates 
from long-past geological ages, and their formation has pro- 
ceeded slowly and gradually ever since. In close connection 
with the folds, however, are nearly parallel and perpendicular 
systems of faults or fractures, along which movement takes 
place intermittently, the crust on one side advancing over 
that on the other by a series of slips, rather than by imper- 
ceptible creeps. When we consider that these faults are often 
many miles in length (two, for instance, cross the whole of 
Scotland), and that the total displacement may amount to 
thousands of feet, even to miles, when we think, further, that 
in each individual slip the crust may not advance by more 
than a fraction of an inch, though it may be by several feet, 
we can realize, though but dimly, the enormous number of 
displacements that must contribute to the growth of a great 
fault. At the same time, if we consider the mass of the rock 
that may be subjected to one of these slips and the friction 
that must thus suddenly be brought into action, we can under- 
stand how the resulting vibration would produce a shock 
that may be as weak as the faintest tremor felt at Comrie, 
or, on the other hand, as mighty as one of the great convul- 
sions that have devastated Lisbon or Calabria, or ruined the 
coasts of Chili and Japan. 



EDITORIAL. 

June 16, 1906. 

To flee from earthquakes is about as philosophic as to 
try to dodge a thunderbolt and therefore we are not surprised 
that our immediate neighbors are so willing to remain in 
California. On another page we quote the observations of 
an authority upon British earthquakes, indicating that even 
the little islands set in the silver sea are subject to these dis- 
turbances. It has been said — on this side — that it needs an 
earthquake to perturb the stolidity of the British character, 
and obviously Nature is not unmindful of her duty. Here, in 
California, we realize that an occasional tremor is a small 
price to pay for a beauty of climate and a glory of sunshine 
that make life worth living indeed. In this connection we 
quote a brilliant young geologist at Washington who recently 
discussed the earthquake of April 18 in a scientific publica- 
tion and was criticized for prognosticating further departures 
from California serenity. He says that he did "not predict 
bigger quakes but merely pointed out, what any intelligent 
man must realize, that earthquake probabilities in the future 
must be calculated from the data of the past. The recent 
great shock has probably relieved a strain that may have 
been 50 or 100 years in accumulating and which may be a 
century or more in again assuming dangerous proportions. 
Personally, I should be glad to take my chances in California, 
preferring the risk of the occasional earthquake to the inevi- 
table visitation of our Eastern summer heat." All of which 
appeals to us as being true, so we expect to see our friends 
coming to California as of yore, to get rest, to obtain sunshine 
and to look upon the face of Nature where she is young and 
beautiful. 



EDITORIAL. 

June 1 6, 1906. 

To those who take no interest in earthquakes and their geo- 
logical relations, we apologize; for this issue is rich in mat- 
ter relating to this subject. But it won't occur again. In 
our issue of April 28 we gave the impressions and facts avail- 
able immediately after the disaster of April 18, and now we 
publish the well-considered views of leading scientific men 
who have had an opportunity to investigate the facts. After 
this we expect to drop the subject. To those who, for rea- 
sons prompted by science or humanity, are interested in the 
explanation of the events that led up to the destruction of a 
great city and permitted of the observation of a rare geologi- 
cal occurrence, the pages that follow will be welcome. 

When the earthquake occurred a Japanese professor made 
calculations by which he ascertained its occurrence in place 
and time. We refer elsewhere to Mr. Omori's formula and 
we publish the substance of a lecture delivered by him here 
during the last few days. While he was at work at Tokio, 
Mr. Frederick L. Ransome, of the United States Geological 
Survey, wrote an account of the probable causes of the earth- 
quake a few hours after the news of it reached Washington, 
and this was prepared long before any facts were obtainable 
from the locality of the disturbance. And yet he also was 
enabled to make a scientific forecast, for, possessing an inti- 
mate knowledge of the geology of California, he knew her 
lines of structural weakness and placed his finger figuratively 
on the very fault along which the destructive slip occurred. 
A few days after the event we published an article by our Mr. 
W. H. Storms in which he described the earthquake line,, 
correctly, as facts now show. His knowledge was based on 
data gathered while field-geologist on the staff of the State 
Mining Bureau. A former chief of that Bureau, Mr. A. S. 
Cooper, contributes a short article, with useful drawings, de- 
scribing the now familiar earthquake line of California. 

The disastrous effects of the earthquake upon the fine group 




The Crippled Ferry Tower. The Clock Has Stopped at 5:14. 



122 AFTER EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE. 

of buildings comprising Stanford University are well worth 
careful study by the architect and student of structural 
engineering. The building scheme has been beautifully car- 
ried out in the so-called 'mission' style and the yellowish 
tinted veneer of sandstone with the pale red tiled roofs is 
picturesque in the extreme. The framing is generally of light 
wood and the main portion of the structure is of brick (in 
some parts of which railroad iron was used) laid dry in mor- 
tar — not laid wet in cement. This is covered with slabs of 
the soft yellow sandstone mentioned, which is obtained near 
San Jose. This stone is a building material admirably adapted 
to the climate, though liable to scale and crack in countries 
where there is frost. The effect of the earthquake on this 
method of construction is shown by a photograph which we 
publish on another page. The same effect may be observed 
on a large scale in San Francisco at the City Hall and else- 
where throughout the neighborhood of San Francisco Bay. 
On the other hand, Roble Hall and the central block of the 
Museum and Art Gallery, both of which were built of tinted 
cement blocks, appear to have withstood the shock well. In 
some parts of the quadrangle and other places the work was 
done by day's labor and consists of solid stone ; here the walls 
have stood better than the combination of brick with stone 
veneer — done by contract work. In many places the key- 
stones of the arches along the corridors have slipped down, 
although the supporting pillars have apparently not spread. 
This could probably be obviated by designing the arch-stones 
of greater width, giving them a consequently greater keying 
power. The tower of the new library building is framed of 
structural steel and has remained intact, though the covering 
of masonry was demolished. Fortunately for the progress of 
education, few of the injured portions had as yet been occu- 
pied and there will be but little interruption to the classes at 
the University. 



BAD LANGUAGE. 

We do not refer to profanity but to a scientific terminology 
that limits the usefulness of a geological pamphlet. It hap- 
pens to be one of particular interest at this time, namely, the 
report of the Earthquake Commission. This report was pre- 
pared for the State of California at the instance of several sci- 
entific men and by order of the Governor. On the face of it, 
the report is intended to allay alarm and to explain to the 
public the scientific facts of the case. This is a laudable pur- 
pose. And the findings of the Commission are decisive. It 
did good work. But why in the name of common sense should 
a document intended for non-scientific readers be written in 
language that is needlessly and awkwardly technical? The 
first sentence of the actual explanation starts out with ref- 
erence to "a line of peculiar geomorphic expression." The 
expression is as peculiar as the line; a 'peculiar topography' 
or 'an unusual earth-form' would have conveyed the same idea 
with much less of irritation to the average reader. Then men- 
tion is made of factors that will "contribute much to geo- 
physical conceptions." The frequent use of "coseismal 
curves" and "fault scarps," without any explanation, is cal- 
culated to cause stumbling among laymen. All such terms 
are known to the scientific and they can be worried out with 
the help of a dictionary even by the average citizen, but here 
is a report, of unquestioned value and interest, prepared by 
first-rate men, and intended to allay the fears while minister- 
ing to the knowledge of the general public, and yet it contains 
a large number of technical terms, some of which are unneces- 
sary, while others that are necessary appear without such 
explanation of their meaning as courtesy demands. It is a 
good example of the supercilious attitude of the scientific 
hierarchy. We are reminded of an incident in a play called 
the 'Merry Monarch.' A lady asks a foreign minister, "What 
is this diplomacy you speak of so respectfully?" The reply is, 
"If you did know what it meant, it would not be diplomacy." 



CONCERNING THE EARTHQUAKE. 
May 16, 1906. 

On another page we publish the chief portion of the report 
of the Commission appointed to investigate the earthquake 
that led up to the San Francisco conflagration. It is calcu- 
lated admirably to fulfil the purpose for which it was de- 
signed, namely, to allay the alarm based on popular miscon- 
ception of the occurrence and to ascertain the immediate geo- 
logic cause of the disturbance. While the report is the work 
of a committee consisting of eight men, aided by capable 
assistants, it is obvious, from internal evidence, that it is to 
be credited mainly to Mr. A. C. Lawson, professor of geology 
in the University of California, who took the first steps that 
led to the appointment and subsequently organized the inves- 
tigation. The report is signed by him, as chairman, and by 
Professor A. O. Leuschner, as secretary. 

It is a conclusive contribution to science. The earthquake 
is proved to have originated along an old line of faulting 
which traverses the coast of California, and though the ulti- 
mate source of the movement must ever remain an obscure 
problem, the immediate cause is ascertained. The center of 
disturbance was at the head of Tomales bay, 32 miles from 
San Francisco, but the shock was transmitted along a zone 
that follows an old fault for 375 miles. The maximum hori- 
zontal dislocation was about 20 feet, but over the 185 miles 
actually examined the surface movement averaged 10 feet. 
The vertical break was much less, the maximum observed 
being not more than four feet. Destructive effects extended 
for a distance of 25 to 30 miles on each side of the rift, although 
these observations are complicated by the possible occurrence 
of other lines of movement. The report does not refer to it, 
but it is likely that there was another rupture, traversing the 
eastern side of the Contra Costa hills, across Mare Island and 
through Sonoma county. The main line of disturbance, and 
the only one positively ascertained, cuts obliquely through 
the Santa Cruz mountains and is independent of such topog- 
raphy as it is due directly to ordinary erosion. It had been 
noted and described several years ago, for this reason. That 



CONCERNING THE EARTHQUAKE. 



125 



is to say, it is the track of an old break in the earth's surface 
of a magnitude far exceeding the recent small slip and the 
movements which it marks must have been as much greater 
than the recent disturbance as a railroad collision surpasses 
the encounter of two persons in a crowd. The big fault orig- 
inated far back in geologic time ; it probably antedated man's 




A Crack Across Van Ness Avenue. 

first appearance and each succeeding movement involved in- 
tervals of time so great as to make human history an inade- 
quate measure. Therefore, from a practical standpoint the 
proof of earlier disturbances and the suggestion of others yet 
to come, need cause no alarm, for it is the geologist who 
speaks, and he deals with time extravagantly. As to the effect 



126 AFTER EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE. 

on buildings, the Commission's report confirms the first infer- 
ences, which were those made on the occasion of previous 
earthquakes — and disregarded. Structures built on made 
ground or on alluvial soil suffered severely, because in such 
foundations the earth-waves are of maximum amplitude. 
If a jelly be placed in a porcelain bowl and if the latter be 
tapped, the vibrations pass through the highly elastic medium 
of the bowl in swift but minute waves that produce no appar- 
ent effect, but when they strike the jelly, their amplitude is 
enlarged and their period increased so that the jelly wobbles 
freely. A building on made ground behaves like a crumb 
perched on the jelly, but if piies be driven through the mud 
or gravel to the solid rock, then the building is anchored to 
the rock and moves with it — hardly at all. The same is true, 
with more assurance, of structures standing on the solid rock 
itself. It is the horizontal vibration that does the damage, 
the vertical component being slight and rarely destructive. 
On April 18 the vertical vibration was insignificant; the hori- 
zontal was about three inches in San Francisco itself. To 
most people even this seems wholly inadequate to account 
for the fearful result, but it must be remembered that the 
effect of each vibration of three inches becomes magnified by 
the acceleration of gravity, in other words, a pendulum motion 
is started, which may culminate, if the vibrations continue 
long, in a swing of a foot or more. The earthquake of April 
18 was so destructive because it lasted a relatively long time 
— one minute and five seconds. The actual collapse of chim- 
neys, copings, and structures in general, occurred toward the 
end of the second portion of the shock. Since the fateful day 
there have been many shocks, some of them severe, but all 
so short as to have done no harm. We presume that the final 
report of the Commission will be a volume, well illustrated 
with photographs, but it is not likely to add much to the 
essential facts as already given. No disturbance in nature 
producing great loss to humanity has ever been so quickly 
diagnosed or so successfully explained. And while man may 
justly pride himself on the quickening of his perception of the 
causes of things, he will remain humble in the face of his 
inability to ascertain the ultimate cause. 



AN EARTHQUAKE FORMULA. 
Editorial May 16, 1906. 

Among the most interesting episodes connected with the 
scientific study of the recent disturbance in California, was the 
determination in Japan, by Mr. F. Omori, professor of seis- 
mology in the Tokio Imperial University, of the exact locality 
and time of the shock. This was done by an empirical for- 
mula, based on numerous observations of earlier earthquakes ; 
the formula had been tested on several previous occasions, 
by its author, an acknowledged authority on the subject, and 
it had been printed eight years ago in the publications of the 
Earthquake Investigation Commission, of Tokio. Professor 
Omori's determination on this occasion was based on the rec- 
ord of his own seismograph at Tokio and the known fact that 
the length of the preliminary tremors indicates the distance 
of the point of observation from the place of origin of the 
earthquake. 

We have Professor Omori's account of the calculations as 
published in Japan ; as this is no place for them, we summar- 
ize by stating that the time the earthquake commenced at 
Tokio was 10 hr. 24 min. 35 sec. (Japanese time) on the night 
of April 18, the total duration being about five hours. The 
first preliminary tremors lasted 9 min. 49 sec, from which 
the approximate distance was calculated to be about 8,700 
kilometres or, say, 5,400 miles. The actual distance from 
Tokio to San Francisco is 5,403 miles. By another formula he 
determined the time of the earthquake to have been 5 hr. 
13 min. 5 sec, which many of us can testify to be an extraor- 
dinarily close approximation. The standard clock at the ob- 
servatory of the University of California at Berkeley stopped 
at 5 hr. 12 min. 38 seconds. 

The preliminary tremors represent those vibrations of small 
amplitude and short period which travel faster than the earth- 
waves that cause the heavy shocks; these smaller vibrations 
are also the ones that carry sound with them and while they 
originate at the same time, they travel so much faster as to 



128 AFTER EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE. 

precede the earthquake proper. At the Lick Observatory on 
Mt. Hamilton, the Ewing seismograph registered the intro- 
ductory small movements for ten seconds, from which it is 
inferred that the central part of the great disturbance was at 
a distance of 80 miles. From Mt. Hamilton to the head of 
Tomales bay it is 83 miles. At the Berkeley observatory the 
Ewing seismograph was thrown out of adjustment by the vio- 
lence of the shock, the magnitude of each component exceed- 
ing the range of the machine. The record of the preliminary 
tremors also is wanting. 

Another feature is interesting. It appears that the first 
preliminary tremors were recorded at Tokio 11 min. 30 sec. 
after they were felt at San Francisco. As the direct spherical 
distance between these cities is 5,403 miles (as calculated 
from difference of longitude along an almost equal latitude), 
the velocity of propagation was 7.8 miles per second. On the 
other hand, at the observatory of the United States Weather 
Bureau at Washington, the preliminary tremors began at 8 hr. 
19 min. 50 sec; they were felt in Berkeley at 5 hr. 12 min. 

6 sec, from which after deducting the three hours difference 
between Eastern and Pacific time, it is apparent that they took 

7 min. 44 sec to travel the 2,413 miles to Washington, or at 
the rate of 5.2 miles per second. This appears to be a dis- 
crepancy, but it is not. The explanation would be highly 
technical; suffice it to say that the velocity of propagation 
varies with, or is a function of, the distance. At Washington 
the preliminary tremors lasted 5 min. 10 sec, as deduced by 
us from an examination of the printed seismographic record; 
taking this interval, the Omori formula gives an estimated dis- 
tance of 2,443 miles from the place of earthquake origin; the 
measured distance being 2,422 miles. At London the shock 
was recorded twice and possibly three times, the first being 
that which was propagated along the shorter spherical dis- 
tance, while the second was the vibration that traveled the 
other way around the globe; the third being the first after 
a complete circuit of the earth. Until recently it was believed 
that the vibrations took two paths, a shorter one through the 
earth, along the chord of the arc, and a longer one in a line 



AN EARTHQUAKE FORMULA. 



129 



parallel to the curved surface; but now the Japanese base 
their measurements on the latter, while the English seismolo- 
gists, led by John Milne, stick to the first. At Tokio, Profes- 
sor Omori records the vibration at 10 hr. 24 min. 35 sec. 
(Japanese time) as that which came direct along the shortest 
spherical route or minor arc, while another series of vibra- 
tions commencing at 31 minutes after midnight, or 2 hr. 6 min. 
35 sec. later, he attributes to the vibration propagated along 
the major arc of the earth, from California southeastward 
through South America, the Atlantic and the Indian oceans, 
to Japan. Of course, the passage of these vibrations is affected 
by the composition or coherence of the rocks through which 
they pass, but over long distances there is a tendency to 
average, so that this perturbing factor becomes eliminated. 

The test of scientific theory is prediction; Mr. Omori dates 
his 'Note on the San Francisco Earthquake' at Tokio on April 
25, but we understand from him that his calculations were 
made before the cable had told him when and where the earth- 
quake had originated. Therefore his was a notable achieve- 
ment. 



THE PROBABLE CAUSE OF THE SAN FRANCISCO 
EARTHQUAKE. 

By Frederick L. Ransome, 
United States Geological Survey. 

Most authorities on earthquakes distinguish two main 
classes — (i) volcanic quakes and (2) tectonic, or dislocation, 
quakes. The former originate in districts of active vulcanism 
and at comparatively shallow depth. According to Major 
C. E. Dutton, the greater number of such shocks are initiated 
at depths less than two miles. They are characterized by a 
fairly definite centrum, a relatively short radius of influence, 
and the absence of subordinate after-quakes. They are phe- 
nomena that could probably be closely imitated by the ex- 
plosion of a large quantity of dynamite at the bottom of a 
deep mine. Tectonic quakes, on the other hand, may origin- 
ate at a greater depth; they usually have indefinite or elon- 
gated centra, they are characterized by a greater radius of 
activity, and the main shock is usually followed by after- 
quakes. Most of the great destructive earthquakes recorded 
in history belong to this class. Such, for example, was the 
Mino-Owari earthquake in Japan, which in 1891 killed over 
7,000 people, wounded over 17,000 more, and destroyed more 
than 200,000 houses. This quake was plainly caused by move- 
ment along a fissure which appeared at the surface as a fault 
about 70 miles long, with a maximum throw of 20 ft. Prof. 
John Milne, after an exhaustive study of the seismological 
records of Japan, concluded that shocks are most frequent in 
districts that exhibit evidence of elevation or subsidence still 
in progress. 

Four kinds of waves are generated in most earthquake 
shocks: (1) normal waves, (2) transverse waves, (3) surface 
waves, and (4) epifocal waves. The first three depend upon 
the elasticity of the rocks traversed, are not visible, and al- 
though propagated with different velocities, are not always 
distinguishable. The last are the visual waves, resembling, 
as Major Dutton says, flat waves on water. They are char- 
acteristic of the epicentral tract of many great earthquakes 



PROBABLE CAUSE OF THE EARTHQUAKE. 



131 



and are highly destructive. They bear no clear relation to 
elasticity and result from the passage of the deeper waves 
from an elastic medium (solid rock) into a feebly elastic 
medium, such as soil or unconsolidated sediments. They thus 
account for the ruin often wrought in valleys and in low 
ground when structures on nearby hills escape. 

The frequency of earthquakes in California is well known, 
and tremors sufficient to rattle the windows of dwellings in 
San Francisco have in the past been so common as to excite 
little alarm and arouse but passing interest. The number of 
quakes recorded in San Francisco from 1850 to 1886 is 254, 
and 514 additional shocks were noted in the same period in 
other parts of California. They are undoubtedly more prev- 
alent in the region surrounding the Bay of San Francisco than 
in the northern or southern extremities of the State. While 
most of the southern quakes have effected no damage, others, 
such as the great shock in 1868, which injured San Francisco, 
the Owens Valley earthquake in 1872, the Vacaville earth- 
quake in 1892, and the Mare Island earthquake in 1898 were 
notably destructive. In general, it may be said that the earth- 
quakes in California exhibit the features characteristic of tec- 
tonic quakes, and the Owens Valley shock is generally 
ascribed to movement along the great fault limiting the Sierra 
Nevada on the east. 

A section across central California, say, from Monterey 
bay to Mono lake — shows three well-marked topographic 
divisions. On the northeast is the gentle western slope of the 
Sierra Nevada, about 70 miles broad, which rises gradually 
from the eastern edge of the main interior valley to the crest 
of the great scarp overlooking the deserts of Nevada. The 
range is essentially a huge fault-block composed of Jurassic 
and older rocks and partly covered by Tertiary lavas. 

The Great Valley is in the main an alluvial plain 50 to 60 
miles wide, its northern part drained by the Sacramento river 
and its southern part by the San Joaquin. Both streams flow 
into the head of Suisun bay and their waters find their way 
across a depression in the third topographic division, the Coast 
Range, through San Francisco bay and the Golden Gate into 
the Pacific. 



132 AFTER EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE. 

The Coast Range separates the Great Valley of California 
from the Pacific ocean. It comprises numerous nearly par- 
allel ridges separated by narrow alluvial valleys and consti- 
tutes a generally mountainous belt 60 miles in width. Both 
in lithology and structure it presents a marked contrast to the 
Sierra Nevada, although the relations of the two ranges in 
the northern and southern parts of the State are not as yet 
fully understood. 

The oldest rocks known in the Coast Range are limestones 
and quartzites, with some crystalline schists, and are exposed 
at various localities from Point Reyes, north of San Francisco, 
to San Luis Obispo. These rocks, which are probably Paleo- 
zoic, are cut by granite supposed to be of the same general 
age as the main granitic intrusions of the Sierra Nevada, which 
are known to be post- Jurassic. All of these rocks, after being 
above sea-level long enough to be extensively eroded, were 
submerged and were covered by a series of sediments several 
thousand feet thick, known, from its characteristic develop- 
ment at San Francisco and on the north side of the Golden 
Gate, as the Franciscan, or Golden Gate series. Although the 
Franciscan consists mainly of sandstone such as forms the 
well-known Telegraph Hill in San Francisco and the larger 
islands in the bay, it contains also some of the most interest- 
ing and characteristic rocks of the Western coast, such as the 
serpentines, the blue glaucophane schists, with their wonder- 
ful mineralogical variety, and peculiar jaspery rocks made up 
in part of the silicious skeletons of radiolaria. The age of 
the Franciscan series, which forms a large part of the Coast 
Range, is still open to question. It is thought by some geol- 
ogists to be Jurassic, by others to be early Cretaceous. 

The deposition of the Franciscan sediments was ended by 
an upward movement of the sea bottom. They were folded 
and faulted, lifted above sea-level and eroded by streams and 
waves. Again, however, the land went down, the Franciscan 
rocks sank beneath the sea and were covered by thousands 
of feet of fossiliferous Cretaceous, Eocene, and Miocene de- 
posits. The sediments of the last period alone attained a 
thickness of over 8,000 ft. At the close of the Miocene and 



PROBABLE CAUSE OF THE EARTHQUAKE. 133 

after minor oscillations of level the rocks were again raised 
above sea-level and were crumpled and faulted by the energy 
of the uplift until they formed a well-defined range separating 
the ocean from the interior valley. In Pliocene time the land 
again subsided, although the Coast Range was probably not 
wholly submerged, and marine deposits of this period were 
laid down in sounds or inlets. 

Here belongs the San Pablo formation, a thick accumula- 
tion of sandstone with intercalated volcanic tuffs. Appar- 
ently during the later stages of San Pablo deposition new 
movements of the land took place whereby fresh-water basins 
were formed, in which accumulated over 3,000 ft. of sedi- 
ments and lava flows — the Berkeleyan and Campan series of 
Professor Lawson. Nor is this all. Still later in the Pliocene 
was deposited the Merced series, which is exposed along the 
ocean beach west of San Francisco. This remarkable deposit, 
described and named by Professor Lawson, is a mile in thick- 
ness and has at its base the well-preserved remnants of a 
coniferous forest. Thus a portion of the Tertiary land upon 
which pines, indistinguishable from the species now growing 
at Monterey, sank beneath the waves to a depth of at least 
5,000 ft., and so rapidly that the trees were buried under sedi- 
ments before they could decay. Finally the Merced series, 
carrying in its upper beds fossils of Quaternary age — the 
mere yesterday of geological time — have been elevated above 
the sea, tilted up at angles as high as 75 °, and dislocated by a 
fault of at least 7,000 ft. throw. 

If anyone will look at a good map of California he can 
scarcely fail to notice the striking parallelism of structure 
shown by that part of the State lying north of Tulare lake 
and south of Red Bluff, near the head of the Sacramento 
valley. This parallelism is not confined to the two main 
ranges, the Great Valley and the coast line, but is conspicu- 
ously shown by the ridges and valleys of the Coast Range. 
In the absence of local geological knowledge, this feature of 
the topography might be ascribed to regular folding, such as 
that of the Appalachians. The actual complexity of the fold- 
ing, however, and the fact that the structural details of the 



134 AFTER EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE. 

ridges show little accord with the general topographic regu- 
larity referred to, dispose effectually of this suggestion. There 
can be little doubt that the principal longitudinal ridges and 
valleys of the Coast Range are due to faulting modified by 
erosion. Much detailed work remains to be done before the 
positions and throws of all these faults can be determined, 
but such careful structural studies as have been made of 
definite areas have invariably revealed the great importance 
of dislocations having a generally north-northwest trend. 
This is particularly true of the San Francisco peninsula, 
which, as Prof. Lawson has shown, is traversed by at least 
three great faults belonging to this dominant system (page 
19). These have been plotted on the outline map of the region 
about San Francisco bay and relief map of the peninsula 
(next page). The San Bruno fault has a throw of 7,000 ft. 
near San Francisco, the southwest side having dropped rela- 
tive to the northeast side. In all probability this same fault 
determines the positions of Bolinas and Tomales bays, north 
of the Golden Gate, and the straightness of the coast line as 
far as Point Arena, 100 miles northwest of San Francisco. 
Toward the south the same fault, or one belonging to the 
same zone, is said to be traceable almost to the Gulf of Cali- 
fornia, and in parts of southern California, is locally known 
as "the earthquake crack." The San Andreas fault, which, as 
may be seen from the small relief map, is followed by a 
rectilinear ravine occupied by a chain of ponds and lakelets 
whose existence is proof of recent disturbance. The third, 
or Pilarcitos, fault has not impressed its presence upon the 
topography of the peninsula in so conspicuous a manner as 
the other two. It is highly probable that future careful work 
will discover other great faults generally parallel with those 
mentioned. There is a strong suggestion, for example, of a 
fault passing near San Jose, along the eastern margin of the 
bay (see page 19), through Santa Rosa, and northwestward 
along the valley of the Russian river past Ukiah.* 



Abstract from the current issue of the 'National Geographic Magazine.' 












San Francisco Peninsula in Relief. 



ANOTHER EARTHQUAKE THEORY. 

In ' Popular Science Monthly ' there is an important article, 
taken from the London ' Times,' and written by Mr. H. H. 
Turner, professor in Oxford University, dealing with earth- 
quakes. Professor Turner says: 

Professor Milne, in the tenth report of the British Associa- 
tion committee, refers the 'world-shaking' earthquakes ob- 
served in the six years 1899- 1905 to thirteen great earthquake 
regions, designated by the first thirteen letters of the alphabet. 
Three of these, I. J and L, are responsible for only five, three 
and two shocks respectively, and are thus of small importance 
compared with the others, which average about forty shocks 
each. Excluding them for the present, the remaining ten 
regions lie approximately in two rings on the earth's surface, 
a configuration which is most strikingly apparent when the 
regions are marked on a globe. The more important ring in- 
cludes the following seven regions: A (Alaskan coast), B 
(Californian coast), C (West Indies), D (Chilian coast), M 
(South of New Zealand), F (Krakatoa region), E (Japan). 
Its center is among the conspicuous group of islands which 
includes Tahiti, and the radius of the ring is about 65 degrees. 
The other ring has its center at the opposite point of the 
earth, which is in the Sahara desert; and at a radius of 50 
degrees from this center lie regions G (between India and 
Madagascar), H (the Azores) and K (Tashkend). Now, this 
is not merely a convenient geographical summary, but a 
physical fact of vital importance, according to recent re- 
searches by Professor Jeans. In a remarkable paper read 
before the Royal Society in 1903 he gave reasons for be- 
lieving that the earth is by no means a sphere or a spheroid, 
as we have been accustomed to think, but is a pear-shape. 
Under gravitational stress it is continually approaching the 
spheroidal form, the pear is being crushed into a sphere by 
its own attraction; and the result is a series of earthquakes. 
These naturally occur in the weakest places, and if any one 
will experiment in crushing a pear towards a spherical shape, 
or even draw a diagram and consider where the weakest 



ANOTHER EARTHQUAKE THEORY. 137 

points would be, the reasons for the existence of two rings 
of greatest weakness will readily suggest themselves. The 
ends of the pear are the centers of these rings, one in Africa, 
one in the Pacific; and when once this is pointed out, the 
pear-shape of the earth is, according to Professor Sollas, "ob- 
vious to mere inspection; it is a geographical fact and not a 
speculation." Professor Sollas is indeed responsible for the 
particular suggestion above sketched ; for Professor Jeans had 
originally proposed a different axis, which he withdrew in 
favor of the obvious improvement. The confirmation of Pro- 
fessor Sollas' view from the distribution of earthquake centers 
is remarkable. It does not seem, however, quite certain which 
is the blunt end of the pear; it has been hitherto placed in 
Africa, but there seem to be several reasons for regarding 
Africa as the stalk end. This point cannot, however, be dealt 
with here. The important thing is that there seems to be a 
real reason for the occurrence of earthquakes in these par- 
ticular regions, and that they will probably continue to occur 
there. Professor Jeans' conclusions have recently been ex- 
amined by Lord Rayleigh, who announced at the Royal 
Society only a few weeks ago that he found them generally 
confirmed, and that we must regard our earth as at present in 
a state far from stable. 

We come to the second point, the distribution of earth- 
quakes in time. Are there seasons of special activity such as 
the recent occurrence of several disasters seems to suggest? 
Here our knowledge is slighter still, and the observed facts 
have not yet been co-ordinated by a mathematical investiga- 
tion. Still there seems to be some evidence in support of the 
view that exceptional irregularities in the rotation of our 
earth may be responsible for an increased number of earth- 
quakes at particular times. That the evidence is slight must 
be attributed to the shortness of the time during which it has 
been possible to obtain it, and not necessarily to inherent 
weakness in the evidence itself. The brevity of the earth- 
quake record has been mentioned above ; that of irregularities 
in the earth's rotation is longer; but the discovery that such 
irregularities existed was made only twenty years ago. 



OBSERVATIONS OF DISTANT EARTHQUAKES. 

By F. Omori 

Professor of Seismology in the Tokio Imperial University. 

The motion of an earthquake consists of several sets of 
vibrations, the amplitude and period of which differ widely. 
It is convenient to divide this motion into the sensible or 
macro-seismic, namely, that which can be felt as tremblings 
or shocks; and the insensible or micro-seismic, which can not 
be felt. In the former, quick vibrations co-exist with slower 
ones, while in the latter quick vibrations are either absent or 
extremely minute. Some of the vibrations in the insensible 
motion are as large as those that are felt in local earthquakes ; 
they are insensible only because their period is long and, con- 
sequently, their acceleration small; the lowest acceleration of 
the sensible motion being about 17 mm. or 0.67 in. per sec. 
The waves of quick period and short length are dissipated 
with increase of distance from the center of disturbance, more 
rapidly than the slow and long waves; the result being that 
the motion due to a distant earthquake is simpler in character 
than that due to a near one; it is entirely micro-seismic or 
insensible. By a "distant earthquake" is meant one whose 
epi-central* distance from a given station is at least 2,000 km. 
or 1,200 miles. 

The earth's crust may be regarded as an elastic medium 
through which seismic waves are propagated. They are re- 
corded and measured by the seismograph, a modern instru- 
ment of extreme sensitiveness. By the aid of it we can observe 
a great earthquake in any part of the world, the motion due 
to such a disturbance lasting generally from one to five hours. 

Near Earthquakes. In an ordinary earthquake, the motion, 
as observed with a seismograph, begins always with vibra- 
tions of small amplitude and comparatively short period. 
These are known as the 'preliminary tremors' and last from a 
few seconds to a few minutes; next come those of large am- 
plitude, constituting the 'principal' part ; and finally the earth- 
quake ends with feeble movements. When the origin of the 

* The epi-centrum is the point on the surface vertically above the place 
where the earthquake originated. — Editor. 



OBSERVATIONS OF DISTANT EARTHQUAKES. 139 

disturbance is near to the observer, a sound resembling dis- 
tant thunder or a rushing wind is heard just before the arrival 
of the ground-trembling. These sound phenomena, which 
are of frequent occurrence in a rocky district, but rare on the 
plains, are credited to the rapid vibrations existing in the 
'preliminary tremor.' The fact that animals show signs of 
disquietude just before an earthquake, is probably due to 
their acute senses, enabling them to feel the first movement 
of the preliminary tremors. The duration of the preliminary 
tremors does not depend on the magnitude of the earthquake ; 
on the contrary, it varies with the radial distance. Thus, if 
Y denote the duration (in seconds) of the preliminary tremors 





A B. Preliminary tremors. 
B C. Principal part. 
C D. End portion. 

of an earthquake at a place, whose distance (in kilometres) 
from the origin of disturbance is X, we have the following 
empirical equation: 

X=7.2 7 Y+ 3 8 
which is to be used for values of X between ioo and 1,000 km. 
This equation enables us to estimate, from the diagram taken 
by a sufficiently sensitive seismograph, the distance of the 
earthquake origin. And if the seismograph records be sim- 
ultaneously taken at two or more stations, we can determine 
the approximate position of the origin. As an example, I 
refer to the excellent Ewing seismograph record taken by 
Dr. Campbell at the Lick Observatory. According to that 
seismogram, the preliminary tremor on April 18 lasted about 
10 to 12 seconds, from which it may be inferred that the 
central part of the great disturbance was at a distance of 
about 120 km., or 75 to 80 miles, from Mount Hamilton. 

The duration of the strongest part of the principal portion 
of the vibrations ordinarily varies between 4 and 10 seconds, 
but in cases of destructive disturbance, it reaches 30 seconds 



140 AFTER EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE. 

or more. From the Lick Observatory seismogram, the dura- 
tion of the principal portion in the recent great shaking seems 
to have been about 40 seconds. 

In slight earthquakes, the movement of the ground is 
small, a mere fraction of an inch. When the motion reaches 
half an inch, the earthquake becomes strong and may cause 
damage. When, however, the motion extends into inches, 
the effect is destructive, and ordinary brick houses, chimneys, 
etc., succumb. The motion in the strongly shaken parts of 
San Francisco was probably three inches. 

In ordinary cases, the vertical component of earthquake 
motion is much smaller than the horizontal, being even when 
greatest, unable by itself to produce serious damage. In fact, 
in this regard the vertical component is only of secondary 
importance; in other words, the seismic damage to structures 
may, with rare exceptions, be regarded as due wholly to the 
horizontal motion. 

Distant Earthquakes. A careful examination of seismo- 
grams shows that the motion consists of several phases, in 
each of which the period remains essentially constant, while 
the amplitude is also on the whole constant, except for the 
occurrence of maximum and minimum groups. 



>/wwwv\/lAWlij 



f /Wnw »A^|f# 



Diagrammatic Representation of the Earthquake Motion 
Proceeding from a Distant Origin. 



ab 
be 
c d 
de 
ef 
fg 
j 



First preliminary tremors. 

Second preliminary tremors. 

First phase of the principal portion. 

Second phase of the principal portion. 

Third phase of the principal portion. 

Fourth phase of the principal portion. 

End portion. 



The successive phases of the earthquake motion, illustrated 
in the figure, are as follows : 

The 'preliminary tremor,' which consists of vibrations of 
small amplitude and of short period, is divided into the 
earlier portion or the first preliminary tremor, and the 



OBSERVATIONS OF DISTANT EARTHQUAKES. 141 

later portion or the second preliminary tremor. Commence- 
ment of the latter is marked by an increase of amplitude and, 
in many cases, also by the appearance of slow undulations. 

The 'principal portion' denotes the most active part of an 
earthquake, and consists of movements of larger amplitude. 
The earlier part is further subdivided into three successive 
stages as follows: (a) The first phase, consisting of a few 
very slow movements; (b) the second phase, consisting of 
slow movements, whose period is generally shorter than in 
the first phase; (c) the third phase, consisting of vibrations 
of a period much quicker than that in the preceding two 
phases. The third phase is followed by others of small ampli- 
tude. In earthquakes of near origin, the motion, on account 
of the existence of quick vibrations of macro-seismic charac- 
ter, is much more complex than in distant earthquakes, and 
it becomes difficult to subdivide the principal portion into 
the different phases. 

Lastly, the 'end portion' denotes the feeble finishing part 
of earthquake motion. 

As in the case of near earthquakes, the duration of the pre- 
liminary tremors at a given place is found to depend on the 
distance from the origin: Thus let X denote the arcual dis- 
tance *(in kilometres) between the epicenter and the observ- 
ing place, and Y the total duration (in seconds) of the first 
and second preliminary tremors, then we have the following 
empirical relation: 

X=6.54Y — 720 
which has been deduced from the observation of different 
earthquakes when X varied between 2,000 and 14,000 km. 
Again, if Y lf denote the duration (in seconds) of the first pre- 
liminary tremor, X having the same signification as before, 
we get the following formula: 

X=i7.iY 1 — 1360 
Each of these equations may be used for determining at once 
the distance of an unknown earthquake, from the record taken 
at any given place. 

The time (T) of occurrence at the origin of any distant 

* That is, as measured along the curvature of the earth, or the arc- 
distance. 



142 AFTER EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE. 

earthquake may approximately be calculated, from the seismo- 
graphic record, by the following empirical formula : 

T=t— 1.165Y 
where Y has the same meaning as before, and t denotes the 
time of earthquake occurrence observed at a given place. 

Pulsatory Oscillations. — Before going further, let me refer 
to a phenomenon called 'pulsatory oscillations.' These are 
small and slow pulse-like movements that are not of earth- 
quake origin; they denote the fact that the ground is in a 
state of vibration even when there is no earthquake at all. 
As the period of these pulsatory oscillations varies but little, 
and remains constant for several successive hours, it may be 
supposed that they represent the proper vibrations of certain 
portions of the earth's crust, such for instance as the plain of 
Musashi on which Tokio is situated. The different por- 
tions of the earth's crust appear to be in continual movement, 
and the period of some of these vibrations ought to be de- 
terminable in each case from the geotectonic circumstances 
of the locality. For instance, a careful examination of the 
horizontal pendulum diagrams obtained at Tokio shows that 
the pulsatory oscillations are essentially vibrations with a 
period of about 4 seconds, more or less mixed up with those 
of a period of about 8 seconds. The vibrations of 4 seconds' 
period occur frequently, but cases are not wanting, where 
the vibrations of the 8 seconds' period predominate. Again 
other cases occur, in which the two kinds of vibrations are 
recorded in different parts of one and the same diagram. The 
average values of the periods of these two series of vibrations 
are respectively 4.4 seconds and 8 seconds. We may perhaps 
assume that the 8 seconds' period vibration constitutes the 
fundamental oscillation proper to the Tokio plain, the 4 
seconds' period being one of its harmonics. 

The average period of the principal pulsatory oscillations at 
Osaka, Formosa, Gottingen, and some other places, is either 
nearly 4 seconds or nearly 8 seconds. It may be that the 
period (or periods) of the pulsatory oscillations is approx- 
imately constant all over the world. 

Pulsatory oscillations generally accompany a cyclone; the 



OBSERVATIONS OF DISTANT EARTHQUAKES. 143 

effect of a great atmospheric depression being sensible at a 
distance of several thousand kilometres. In a few cases, how- 
ever, pronounced storms of pulsatory oscillations occur on 
days when calm weather prevails all over Japan. In Tokio, 
earthquakes occur rarely while pulsatory oscillations are 
active. On the other hand, shocks are frequent when these 
oscillations come to a state of minimum activity. 

Periods of Earthquake Vibrations. The predominating 
periods in the preliminary tremors of the distant earthquake 
motion observed at Tokio were those of about 4.5 and 8.5 
seconds, corresponding thus with the pulsatory oscillation. 
Moreover the periods observed in the preliminary tremors do 
not depend on the distance of an epicentrum from the observ- 
ing station, nor upon the nature of the disturbance at the seis- 
mic origin, but they are characteristic of a particular region — 
in this case Tokio. A similar conclusion probably holds good 
also for the periods in other stages of the earthquake motion. 
The conclusion is that the principal vibrations in the pre- 
liminary tremors of distant earthquakes and the pulsatory 
oscillations are identical phenomena. 

The explanation is as follows : The waves of the prelimin- 
ary tremors are transmitted along a deep layer of the earth's 
crust with a velocity (about 14 km.) of which I shall speak 
presently, and communicate a stress to the superincumbent 
surface layer of the earth's crust in the region about the ob- 
serving station; the latter being, in consequence, thrown into 
its own proper vibrations. Thus, the preliminary tremors are 
nothing else than the pulsatory oscillations, caused by the 
waves transmitted along a deep layer of the earth's crust 
from the origin of an earthquake. 

The Velocities of Propagation of the Vibrations. In cal- 
culating the velocities of propagation of distant earthquake 
waves, it makes a great difference whether we suppose the 
waves to be propagated along the chord of the earth (join- 
ing the origin to the observing station) or parallel to the sur- 
face. Calculated on the latter supposition, which seems to be 
more probable, the velocities of the different waves of the 
earthquake motion come out approximately the same, irre- 



144 AFTER EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE. 

spective of the arcual distances, those cases in which the epi- 
central distance is small, say, under 30 , being excluded. On 
the chord supposition, the corresponding velocities come out 
quite different, according to the distances. 

If we denote by V lf V 2 , V 3 , V 4 , V 3 , V 6 , V 7 > and V 8 , the 
velocities of propagation (supposed parallel to the earth's 
surface) of the waves at the commencement of the successive 
phases of the earthquake motion, their mean values are as 
follows : 

V 1 13.7 km. sec. V 5 3.3 km. sec. 

V 2 7.2 " V 6 2.8 " 

V 3 4.6 " . V 7 2.4 " 

V 4 " . V 8 2.1 " 

Now the velocity of propagation of the vibrations at the 
commencement of the principal portion of a near earthquake 
is 3.3 km. (or two miles) per second, which is the same as 
V- above. Here it is evident that the vibrations in the 3rd 
phase of the principal portion are transmitted along the sur- 
face of the earth's crust. 

The transit velocity of the vibrations of the 1st preliminary 
tremor, namely V lt is very great and no known rock has an 
elastic modulus sufficiently large to permit of it, whether the 
vibrations be longitudinal or transverse. Hence we must con- 
clude that the waves of the 1st preliminary tremor are trans- 
mitted along some path within the earth's crust. As, however, 
the duration of the 1st preliminary tremor at a given station 
is very nearly proportional to the arcual distance between the 
station and the earthquake origin, it seems likely that the 
waves of the 1st preliminary tremor are transmitted parallel 
to the surface of the earth and at a constant depth below it; 
the supposition being that the waves of the 1st and 2nd pre- 
liminary tremors and of the principal portion are all generated 
simultaneously at the earthquake origin, becoming gradually 
separated from one another (on account of the difference of 
the transit velocities) as the disturbance extends. The layer 
along which the high velocity (VJ waves are propagated 
may mark the limit beyond which the seismic waves are, on 
account of certain physical properties of the underlying me- 



OBSERVATIONS OF DISTANT EARTHQUAKES. 145 

dium, unable to penetrate; or there may be, as Professor 
Nagaoka suggests, a maximum transit velocity. A rough 
calculation, based on the relation of the duration of the ist 
preliminary tremor and the epicentral distance, and on the 
value of the different velocities, gives 600 kilometres or about 
400 miles as the probable depth of the layer along which the 
vibrations of the ist preliminary tremor are propagated. 

It is probable that the waves having velocities V 2 and V a 
are transmitted along layers at smaller depths within the 
earth's crust. 

Propagation of the Seismic Motion Completely Around the 
Earth. — Let T be the observing station and C the earthquake 
origin. Then there are three sets of motion, which can be dis- 
tinguished; they may be denoted respectively as W x , W 2 , 
and W 3 . 

The W x waves are those propagated from C to T along the 




shortest path, parallel to the surface, namely along the minor 
arc ; the W 2 waves are those propagated from C in the opposite 
direction and arriving at T after passing through the antipode 
of C, namely, along the major arc; and the W 3 waves are the 
W x waves which are propagated beyond T in the same direc- 
tion, and again arrive at T after making one complete circuit 
of the earth. 

The identification of the W 3 waves is possible only in a few 
cases; that of the W 2 waves is, however, more definite, being 
characterized by the fact that their period is much slower than 



146 AFTER EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE. 

those of the preceding vibrations, which form the end portion 
of the W x waves. 

The average period of the W 2 waves is, with a few excep- 
tions, uniform and gives a mean value of 20.4 seconds, which 
is identical with the predominating period in the 3rd phase of 
the principal portion ; the period of the W 3 waves is also nearly 
the same as that of the W 2 waves. These facts seem to indi- 
cate that the W 2 and W 3 waves are the same as those which 
constitute the 3rd phase of the principal portion of the earth- 
quake proper. 

The time interval between the arrival of the W x and of the 
W 3 waves is 3 hr. 20 min. 46 sec; this agrees with the 
time that would be taken by the vibrations in the 3rd phase of 
the principal portion in making one complete circuit around 
the earth, with the velocity of 3.3 km. or two miles per second. 

The San Francisco Earthquake Observed in Tokio. The 
time of commencement in Tokio of the earthquake was 5 hr. 
24 min. 35 sec. a. m. (Pacific time) ; the total duration of 
motion being five hours. The duration of the 1st preliminary 
tremor was 9 min. 49 sec, from which the approximate arcual 
distance between the origin of the earthquake and the observ- 
ing place was calculated to be 5,400 miles, and the time of the 
occurrence at the origin of the shock to be 5 hr. 13 min. 5 sec. 
a. m. (P. T.). 

The 1 st displacement of the well-defined horizontal vibra- 
tion at the commencement of the 2nd preliminary tremor was 
directed toward S 27 ° W; the counter displacement being 
directed toward NE. It will be observed that the directions 
of these movements correspond to the great circle joining 
Tokio with the origin of disturbance. 

At 7 hr. 31 min. a. m. (P. T.), or 2 hr. 6 min. 35 sec. after 
the commencement of the disturbance, there began vibrations 
which correspond to the same earthquake motion propagated 
along the major arc of the earth, that is, from the center in 
a southwestern direction, through South America, the Atlan- 
tic, and the Indian Oceans. 

As other examples of large earthquakes which disturbed the 
west coast of the American continent, I may mention the fol- 



OBSERVATIONS OF DISTANT EARTHQUAKES. 147 

lowing: The Alaska earthquake of September 3 and 10, 1899, 
and on October 9, 1900; Central American earthquakes, on 
April 18 and September 22, 1902; Panama, Colombia and 
Ecuador earthquake, on January 1, 1906. 

The whole Pacific coast, which forms one of the most active 
seismic districts in the world, is frequently visited by earth- 
quakes of different size and intensity. Large destructive 
earthquakes have, however, a tendency to happen in groups, 
that is, they occur along different parts of a given zone in 
the course of a few years. Thus, as mentioned above, there 
were, between September, 1899, and January, 1906, a series of 
six extensive disturbances which affected the whole coast 
from Alaska down to South America, indicating that these 
earthquakes were of no local character, but that there was 
great stress along the Pacific border, such as to lead one to 
expect the extension of the seismic disturbance to California. 
The great earthquake of April 18 last may therefore be re- 
garded as having completed the continuity of the manifesta- 
tion of the seismic activity along this part of the world. Now, 
the earthquake is caused by the existence of a weak point 
underground, which, reaching the limit, finally gives rise to 
a sudden disturbance that becomes the source of the wave 
motion that is propagated through the rock and the soil. An 
extensive earthquake such as that of April 18, may be re- 
garded as having removed the instability existing in this part 
of the earth's crust; those regions most violently shaken 
becoming seismically the safest place for a certain interval of 
time. As a matter of fact, there is no case recorded in which 
great earthquakes have originated successively at one and the 
same center. The small after-shocks which will continue to 
shake the western coast for a few years, are not of a danger- 
ous nature. On the contrary, it is absolutely necessary that 
these small shocks should occur, as they enable the disturbed 
earth's crust to settle into a condition of equilibrium.* 



* This paper forms the substance of a lecture delivered before the Astro- 
nomical Society of the Pacific, at the University of California, on June 
9, 1906. Reported and abstracted by the Editor. 



REPORT OF THE STATE EARTHQUAKE 
COMMISSION. 

One of the remarkable features of the Coast Ranges of 
California is a line of peculiar geomorphic expression which 
extends obliquely across the entire width of the mountainous 
belt from Mendocino county to Riverside county. The pecu- 
liarity of the surface features along this line lies in the fact 
that they are not due, as nearly all other features of the moun- 
tains are, to atmospheric and stream erosion of the uplifted 
mass which constitutes the mountains, but have been formed 
by a dislocation of the earth's crust, or rather a series of such 
dislocations, in time past, with a differential movement of 
the parts on either side of the plane of rupture. In general 
this line follows a system of long narrow valleys, or where it 
passes through wide valleys it lies close to the base of the con- 
fining hills, and these have a very straight trend; in some 
places, however, it passes over mountain ridges, usually at 
the divide separating the ends of two valleys; it even in some 
cases goes over a spur or shoulder of a mountain. Along this 
line are very commonly found abrupt changes in the normal 
slope of the valley-sides giving rise to what are technically 
known as scarps. These scarps have the appearance of low 
precipitous walls which have been usually softened and 
rounded somewhat by the action of the weather. Small basins 
or ponds, many having no outlet, and some containing saline 
water, are of fairly frequent occurrence and they usually lie 
at the base of the small scarps. Trough-like depressions also 
occur bounded on both sides by scarps. These troughs and 
basins can only be explained as due to an actual subsidence 
of the ground, or to an uplift of the ground on one side or 
the other, or on both sides. The scarps similarly can only 
be ascribed to a rupture of the earth with a relative vertical 
displacement along the rupture plane. Frequently small 
knolls or sharp little ridges are found to characterize this 
line and these are bounded on one side by a softened scarp 
and separated from the normal slope of the valley-side by a 



150 AFTER EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE. 

line of depression. In many cases these features have been 
so modified and toned down by atmospheric attack that only 
the expert eye can recognize their abnormal character; but 
where their line traverses the more desert parts of the Coast 
Range, as for example in the Carissa plains, they are well 
known to the people of the country and the aggregate of the 
features is commonly referred to as the "earthquake crack." 
This line begins on the north at the mouth of Alder creek 
near Point Arena and extends southeasterly nearly parallel 
with the coast line to a point about two miles below Fort 
Ross, a distance of 43 miles. Here it passes outside of the 
shore line and is again met with at the point where Bodega 
Head joins the mainland. Thence it appears to continue 
southward through Tomales bay and Bolinas lagoon. Beyond 
Bolinas lagoon it passes outside of the Golden Gate and enters 
the shore again at Mussel Rock, eight miles south of the 
Cliff House. From this point it is traceable continuously 
along the valley line occupied by San Andreas and Crystal 
Springs lakes, past Woodside and Portola, over a saddle back 
of Black mountain, thence along Stevens Creek canyon, pass- 
ing to the southwest of Table mountain and Congress Springs 
to the vicinity of Wrights, on the narrow-gauge railway be- 
tween San Jose and Santa Cruz. From Wrights it continues 
on in the same course through the Santa Cruz mountains to 
the point where the Southern Pacific railway crosses the 
Pajaro river near Chittenden. From the crossing of the 
Pajaro the line extends up the valley of the San Benito river, 
across the eastern portion of Monterey county, and thence 
follows the northeastern side of the valley of the San Juan 
river and the Carissa plains to the vicinity of Mt. Pinos, in 
Ventura county. The line thus traced from Point Arena to 
Mt. Pinos has a length of 375 miles, is remarkably straight, 
and cuts obliquely across the entire breadth of the Coast 
Ranges. To the south of Mt. Pinos the line either bends to 
the eastward following the general curvature of the ranges 
or is paralleled by a similar line offset from it en echelon; for 
similar features are reported at the Tejon pass and traceable 
thence though less continuously across the Mojave desert to 



REPORT OF THE STATE COMMISSION. 151 

Cajon pass and beyond this to San Jacinto and the southeast 
border of the Colorado desert. The probability is that there 
are two such lines, and that the main line traced from Pt. 
Arena to Mt. Pinos is continued with the same general 
straight trend past San Fernando and along the base of the 
remarkably even fault-scarp at the foot of which lies Lake 
Elsinore. But, leaving the southern extension of the line out 
of consideration as somewhat debatable, we have a very 
remarkable physiographic line extending from Pt. Arena to 
Mt. Pinos which affords every evidence of having been in 
past time a rift, or line of dislocation, of the earth's crust 
and of recurrent differential movement along the plane of 
rupture. The movements which have taken place along this 
line extend far back into the Quaternary period, as indicated 
by the major, well-degraded fault-scarps and their associated 
valleys; but they have also occurred in quite recent times, 
as is indicated by the minor and still undegraded scarps. 
Probably every movement on this line produced an earth- 
quake, the severity of which was proportionate to the amount 
of movement. 

The cause of these movements in general terms is that 
stresses are generated in the earth's crust which accumulate 
till they exceed the strength of the rocks composing the crust 
and they find a relief in a sudden rupture. This establishes 
the plane of dislocation in the first instance, and in future 
movements the stresses have only to accumulate to the point 
of overcoming the friction on that plane and any cementation 
that may have effected in the intervals between movements. 

The earthquake of April 18, 1906, was due to one of these 
movements. The extent of the rift upon which the movement 
of that date took place is at the time of writing not fully 
known. It is, however, known from direct field observations 
that it extends certainly from the mouth of Alder creek near 
Pt. Arena to the vicinity of San Juan in San Benito county, 
a distance of about 185 miles. The destruction at Petrolia 
and Ferndale in Humboldt county indicates that the move- 
ment on the rift extended at least as far as Cape Mendocino, 
though whether the line or rift lies inland or off shore in that 






152 AFTER EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE. 

region is still a matter of inquiry. Adding the inferred ex- 
tension of the movement to its observed extent gives us a 
total length of about three hundred miles. The general trend 
of this line is about N 35 ° W, but in Sonoma and Mendocino 
counties it appears to have a slight concavity to the north- 
east, and if this curvature be maintained in its path beneath 
the waters of the Pacific it would pass very close to and pos- 
sibly inside of capes Gordo and Mendocino. Along the 185 
miles of this rift where movement has actually been observed 
the displacement has been chiefly horizontal on a nearly ver- 
tical plane, and the country to the southwest of the rift has 
moved northwesterly relatively to the country on the north- 
east of the rift. By this it is not intended to imply that the 
northeast side was passive and the southwest side active in 
the movement. Most probably the two sides moved in oppo- 
site directions. The evidence of the rupture and of the dif- 
ferential movement along the line of rift is very clear and un- 
equivocal. The surface soil presents a continuous furrow gen- 
erally several feet wide with transverse cracks which show 
very plainly the effort of tortion within the zone of the move- 
ment. All fences, roads, stream-courses, pipe-lines, dams, con- 
duits, and property-lines which cross the rift are dislocated. 
The amount of dislocation varies. In several instances ob- 
served it does not exceed six feet. A more common measure- 
ment is eight to ten feet. In some cases as much as 15 or 
16 feet of horizontal displacement has been observed, while 
in one case a roadway was found to have been differentially 
moved 20 feet. Probably the mean value for the amount of 
horizontal displacement along the rift line is about ten feet 
and the variations from this are due to local causes such as 
drag of the mantle of soil upon the rocks, or the excessive 
movement of soft incoherent deposits. Besides this general 
horizontal displacement of about 10 feet there is observable in 
Sonoma and Mendocino counties a differential vertical move- 
ment not exceeding four feet, so far as at present known, 
whereby the southwest side of the rift was raised relatively 
to the northeast side, so as to present a low scarp facing the 
northeast. This vertical movement diminishes to the south- 



154 AFTER EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE. 

east along the rift-line and in San Mateo county it is scarcely, 
if at all, observable. Still farther south there are suggestions 
that this movement may have been in the reverse direction, 
but this needs further field-study. 

The great length of the rift upon which movement has oc- 
curred makes this earthquake unique. Such length implies 
great depth of rupture, and the study of the question of depth 
will, it is believed, contribute much to current geophysical 
conceptions. 

The time of the beginning of the earthquake as recorded in 
the Observatory at Berkeley was 5 hr. 12 min. 6 sec. a. m., 
Pacific standard time. The end of the shock was 5 hr. 13 min. 
11 sec. a. m., the duration being 1 min. 5 sec. Within an hour 
of the main shock twelve minor shocks were observed by 
S. Albrecht of the Observatory and their time accurately 
noted. Before 6 hr. 52 min. p. m. of the same day thirty-one 
shocks were noted in addition to the main disturbance. These 
minor shocks continued for many days after April 18, and in 
this respect the earthquake accords in behavior with other 
notable earthquakes in the past. The minor shocks which 
succeeded the main one are interpreted generally as due to 
subordinate adjustments of the earth's crust in the tendency 
to reach equilibrium after the chief movement. 

The collection of time records necessarily proceeds slowly. 
The purpose of the co-seismal curves based upon these rec- 
ords is in general two-fold. In ordinary earthquakes it is 
one of the means of locating the seat of the disturbance when 
there is no surface manifestation of the rupture in the earth's 
crust. In the present instance, however, the rupture has de- 
clared itself in an unmistakable rift observable at the surface, 
and co-seismals are therefore unnecessary for the determin- 
ation of this important factor in the general problem, so far 
at least as regards the main disturbance. It is probable, how- 
ever, that so radical a change in the equilibrium of the stresses 
of the earth's crust would induce secondary ruptures and 
consequently secondary earthquakes closely associated with 
the chief shock. The careful plotting of the time records may, 
therefore, be useful in revealing the location of these second- 



REPORT OF THE STATE COMMISSION. 155 

ary disturbances, such for example as the one which affected 
southern California on the afternoon of April 18. The sec- 
ond purpose of securing time records is the determination 
of the velocity of propagation of the earth wave ; and the data 
for this which are likely to be most serviceable are the records 
obtained at various quite distant seismographic stations. 

The destructive effects of the earthquake are in the main 
distributed with reference to the line of rift. The exact limits 
of the area of destruction have not yet been mapped, but it is 
known to extend out about twenty-five or possibly thirty 
miles on either side of the rift. On the southwest side the 
greater part of this area to the north of the Golden Gate lies 
in the Pacific. This area extends from Eureka in Humboldt 
county to the southern extremity of Fresno county, a distance 
of about four hundred miles. 

Beyond this area of destructive shock the earthquake was 
felt in its milder manifestations over a wide territory. Our 
reports to date show that it was felt in Oregon as far north 
as Coos bay and on the south as far as Los Angeles. To the 
east it was felt over the greater part of middle California and 
western Nevada, particularly along the eastern flank of the 
Sierra Nevada. It was felt at Lovelocks, and we have un- 
confirmed reports of its having been felt at Winnemucca. Far 
beyond the region within which it was apparent to the senses, 
however, the earth wave was propagated both through the 
earth and around its periphery; and some of the most valu- 
able and most accurate records of the disturbance which we 
have are those which were registered at such distant seis- 
mographic stations as Washington, D. C. ; Sitka, Alaska ; 
Potsdam, Germany ; and Tokio, Japan. 

Within the area of destructive effects approximately 400 
by 50 miles in extent the intensity varied greatly. There 
was a maximum immediately on the rift line. Water-pipes, 
conduits, and bridges crossing this line were rent asunder. 
Trees were uprooted and thrown to the ground in large num- 
bers. Some trees were snapped off, leaving their stumps 
standing, and others were split from the roots up. Buildings 
and other structures were in general violently thrown and 



156 AFTER EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE. 

otherwise wrecked, though some escaped with but slight 
damage. Fissures opened in the earth and closed again, and 
in one case reported a cow was engulfed. A second line of 
maximum destruction lies along the floor of the valley system 
of which the bay of San Francisco is the most notable fea- 
ture, and particularly in the Santa Rosa and Santa Clara 
valleys. Santa Rosa, situated twenty miles from the rift, was 
the most severely shaken town in the State and suffered the 
greatest disaster relatively to its population and extent. 
Healdsburg suffered to a nearly similar degree. San Jose, 
situated thirteen miles, and Agnews, about twelve miles from 
the rift, are next in order of severity. Stanford University, 
seven miles from the rift, is probably to be placed in the same 
category. All of these places are situated on the valley floor 
and are underlain to a considerable depth by loose or but 
slightly coherent geological formations, and their position 
strongly suggests that the earth waves as propagated by such 
formations are much more destructive than the waves which 
are propagated by the firmer and highly elastic rocks of the 
adjoining hill lands. This suggestion is supported by a con- 
sideration of the destructive effects exhibited by towns and 
single buildings along the same valley line which are situated 
wholly or partly on rock. Petaluma and San Rafael, though 
nearer the rift than Santa Rosa, suffered notably less, and they 
are for the most part on, or close to, the rocky surface. The 
portions of Berkeley and Oakland which are situated on the 
alluvial slope suffered more than the foothills, where the 
buildings are founded on rock. The same suggestion is fur- 
ther supported from a consideration of the zone of maximum 
destructive effect on the southwest side of the rift. This zone 
lies in the Salinas valley. The intensity of destructive action 
at Salinas was about the same as at San Jose, and the town 
is situated on the flood plain deposits of the Salinas river. 
Along the banks of the Salinas river and extending from 
Salinas to the vicinity of Gonzales, so far as our reports at 
present show, the bottom lands were more severely ruptured, 
fissured and otherwise deformed than in any other portion 
of the State. The Spreckels sugar mill, situated on the banks 



REPORT OF THE STATE COMMISSION. 157 

of the river, suffered more severely probably than any other 
steel structure in the State. Santa Cruz, on the other hand, 
which is on the same side of the rift, and at the same distance 
from it, but which is built on rock for the most part, suffered 
much less damage. In the northern counties along the coast 
the most severe effects were felt at Ferndale, on the south 
margin of the flood plain of the Eel river, and at Petrolia, 
on the bottom land of the Mattole. Ft. Bragg was severely 
shaken with very destructive effects, but our reports do not 
yet indicate the character of the ground upon which it is 
situated. 

In the facts which have been cited we seem to have warrant 
for a generalization as to the excessively destructive effect 
of the earth wave as transmitted by the little coherent for- 
mations of the valley bottoms. But it must be borne in mind 
that by far the greater number of structures subject to de- 
structive shock are situated in the valley lands, and that there 
has not yet been time for a detailed comparison of the effects 
in the valleys with those in the hills, where the buildings are 
founded on firm rock, except in a few notable instances. 

The most destructive of these instances is the city of San 
Francisco, and the facts observed there are entirely in har- 
mony with the generalization above outlined. In the city 
of San Francisco we may recognize for preliminary purposes 
four types of ground: (i) The rocky hill slopes; (2) the 
valleys between the spurs of the hills which have been filled 
in slowly by natural processes; (3) the sand dunes; (4) the 
artificially filled land on the fringe of the city. Throughout 
the city we have a graded scale of intensity of destructive 
effects which corresponds closely to the classification of the 
ground. The most violent destruction of buildings, as every- 
body knows, was on the made ground. This ground seems 
to have behaved during the earthquake very much in the same 
way as jelly in a bowl, or as a semi-liquid material in a tank. 
The earth waves which pass through the highly elastic rock 
swiftly with a small amplitude seem in this material to have 
been transformed into slow undulations of great amplitude 
which were excessively destructive. The filled-in material 



158 AFTER EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE. 

and the swampy foundation upon which it rests behaved, 
in other words, as a mass superimposed upon the earth's sur- 
face, rather than as a part of the elastic crust itself. In a less 
degree the same thing is true of the sand-dune areas, where 
the ground was frequently deformed and fissured. In still less 
degree the naturally filled valleys between the hill spurs were 
susceptible to this kind of movement, and the destruction of 
buildings was correspondingly less, but still severe, depend- 
ing very largely on the character of the buildings, the integ- 
rity of their construction, etc. In portions of these valleys, 
however, the original surface of the ground has been modified 
by grading and filling, and on the filled areas the destruction 
was more thorough than elsewhere in the same valley tracts. 
On the rocky slopes and ridge tops, where, for the most part, 
the vibration communicated to buildings was that of the 
elastic underlying rocks, the destruction was at a minimum. 
On some of the hills chimneys fell very generally and walls 
were cracked; on others even the chimneys withstood the 
shock. 

While this correlation of intensity of destructive effect ap- 
pears to hold as a generalization, there are well known excep- 
tions, which find their explanation in the strength of the struc- 
tures. Modern class A steel structures with deep foundations 
appear to have been relatively passive, while the made ground 
in their immediate vicinity was profoundly disturbed. Thor- 
oughly bonded and well cemented brick structures, on simi- 
larly deep and solid foundations, seem to have been equally 
competent to withstand the shock, except for occasional pier- 
like walls not well tied to the rest of the building. The weak 
points in wooden frame structures were in general the faulty 
underpinning and lack of bracing, and chimneys entirely un- 
adapted to resist such shocks. With these faults corrected, 
frame buildings of honest construction would suffer little 
damage beyond cracking of plaster in such a shock as that of 
April 1 8, save on the made ground, where deep foundations 
and large mass appear to be essential for the necessary degree 
of passivity. 

Pipe lines and bridges crossing the rift line present a pecu- 



REPORT OF THE STATE COMMISSION. 159 

liar, if not quite unique, engineering problem which will 
doubtless be solved in the near future. Pipe lines on low 
swampy ground or in made ground are in much greater dan- 
ger of destruction from earthquake shocks than those on high 
ground underlaid by rock, except in the immediate vicinity of 
the rift, where nothing could be constructed which would 
withstand the violence of the earth movement. 

One of the lessons of the earthquake which seems peculiarly 
impressive is the necessity for studying carefully the site of 
proposed costly public buildings where large numbers of 
people are likely to be congregated. In so far as possible, 
such sites should be selected on slopes upon which sound rock 
foundation can be reached. It is probably in large measure 
due to the fact of their having such a rock foundation that the 
buildings of the State University, at Berkeley, escaped prac- 
tically uninjured. The construction of such buildings as our 
public schools demands the most earnest attention of the 
people and of the authorities charged with their construc- 
tion. A great many of our schools proved to be of flimsy 
construction and ill adapted to meet the emergency of an 
earthquake shock of even less severity than that of April 18. 

The Commission in presenting this brief report has had in 
mind the demand on the part of the people of the State and 
of the world at large for reliable information as to the essen- 
tial facts of the earthquake. It has, therefore, not presumed 
to engage in any discussion of the more abstruse geological 
questions which the event naturally raises. 




\ ^s 



<v^«F / 



Relief Map of California. 

The black lines indicate earthquake-faults. 



THE EARTHQUAKE EXPLAINED. 

By A. S. Cooper, 
Formerly State Mineralogist of California. 

The coast ranges of California consist of a number of broken 
anticlines, fissured by faults and step-faults, nearly all of which 
run in a northwest and southeast direction roughly parallel 
with each other, and with the valleys. Both sides of the fault 
are elevated but the northeast side is usually raised from one 
foot to several hundred feet higher than the southwest side. 

The black line on the relief map, reproduced on the opposite 
page, shows the position of the master fault of the coast ranges. 
This fault extends from opposite Fort Bragg, in Mendocino 
county, to the Gulf of California, a distance of 700 miles. A 
wagon road follows 400 miles of its length. The movements 
of the earth which produced the earthquake of April 18, 1906, 
occurred almost simultaneously in this fault throughout its 
entire extent; consequently, there was no center of disturb- 
ance or seismic focus. The shock was of greater violence 
near Fort Bragg and San Juan, in San Benito county, than 
further south. Cracks and fissures can be seen from Tomales 
bay to San Juan. Two hundred miles of this fault broke into 
fissures of profound depth in about one minute, as is shown 
by the duration of the earthquake shock. The land on the 
northeast side of the cracks and fissures was elevated several 
feet higher than was the land on the southwest side. The 
fault marked by a white line on the relief map east of the 
master fault was also affected simultaneously, fissures opening 
for a long distance. All of the cities and towns lying within 
fifteen miles of this fault-line between Fort Bragg and Salinas 
City were badly damaged. 

Fig. 1 is an ideal section from the Sierra Nevada through 
the San Joaquin valley and the coast ranges to the Pacific 
ocean in a northeast and southwest direction. As will be seen 
by reference to this section, all of the anticlines forming the 
coast ranges are faulted and fissured. The core of some of 
these anticlines is granitic while others have a core of meta- 
morphic rock. The floor of the valley is also faulted, the fault 
being hidden by the debris deposited in the valley. These 
faults and fissures are formed by a mighty pressure coming 



v- + + ■+- ■*■ 

X + 4- -+- 4- - 

► + -(--•- ■+- 
1*. + ■*- ■*■ 



*- VkiV- f 



« + ♦• +- +■ +• -t- Uj T . 7 ".i. T " i 







2 

cfq' 





bi 



THE EARTHQUAKE EXPLAINED. 165 

from the southwest, caused by shrinkage of the earth by secu- 
lar cooling. The direction of this force is represented by the 
arrows. This force is deflected upward by the immobility of 
the base of the Sierra Nevada. The upward deflection of this 
force is shown by the curved arrows. That this pressure 
exists is shown by the fissility of the slates and the foliation 
of the schistose rocks at the foot of the Sierra Nevada. The 
slates split in a northwest and southeast direction and the 
foliation of the schistose rocks is also in the same direction. 
The splitting of the slates and the foliation of the schistose 
rocks are at right angles to those lines of pressure, such cleav- 
eges occurring normally at right angles to the pressure. 

Fig. 2, 3, and 4 represent the usual structure of the faulted 
and fissured anticlines of the coast ranges of California. Fig. 
2 is an anticlinal structure which is bent so acutely that its 
apex is greatly fissured. Fig. 3 is an anticlinal structure 
faulted and fissured at F; both sides of the fault are elevated,, 
but the side G has been raised from a few feet to several hun- 
dred feet higher than the side E. Fig. 4 is an anticline having 
a metamorphic core I. Both sides of the core are elevated, but 
the side J is generally elevated many hundred feet higher than 
the side H. There is a faulting at K, between the metamor- 
phic rock I and the sedimentary strata H. The sedimentary 
strata next to the metamorphic rock are abruptly bent upward 
by the ascent of the metamorphic rock. The side J is elevated, 
but usually there is no faulting between the sedimentary rock 
J and the metamorphic rock. Gases and mineral waters ascend 
through the fissures and cracks in these anticlines. 

The elevation of the strata has progressed several feet at a 
time. In the last fifty years in San Benito county the east- 
ern side of the master fault was raised 14 feet, then two and 
one-half feet, then one foot and then two feet, higher than the 
western side. 

When the lateral pressure described above has increased 
sufficiently to overcome the weight of the overlying rocks and 
the friction, the rocks on the side of the fault away from the 
ocean are suddenly lifted, producing a jar or earthquake. 
There being a greater pressure when the first movement of 



166 



AFTER EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE. 



the earth occurs, the first shock is always the most violent. 
This is followed by minor shocks as the earth adjusts itself. 
A number of years will generally elapse before the lateral pres- 
sure increases sufficiently to produce another movement of a 
similar kind. 




a 

u 
O 

E 

w 
■*-• 
U 



to 



EFFECTS OF THE EARTHQUAKE. 

By D'Arcy Weatherbe. 

For some time previous to the earthquake, John C. Bran- 

ner, professor of geology in Stanford University, had been 

examining the topographic* and geologic conditions through- 




On the Line of the Fault, 
out the Santa Clara valley and the adjacent mountains on 
either side. He came to the conclusion that there existed a 



168 AFTER EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE. 

zone of fracture or a line of faulting which intersects the 
Coyote river near the bridge on the road from Milpitas to 
Alviso. This fault is said to have a course approximately 
northwest and southeast and some rather remarkable demon- 
strations of the earthquake have occurred along the levee paths 
following the Coyote river north from the bridge mentioned. 
It should be stated in passing that the alluvial deposits of 
the Santa Clara valley are immensely deep — how deep is not 
known — although boreholes for artesian wells have been sunk 
over 1,000 feet in sand and gravel. At the locality mentioned 
large fissures, as much as eight feet wide and of nearly equal 
depth, have been opened and as partial filling ensued immedi- 
ately, they must have been of much greater depth when first 
formed. In some places the road has been completely precipi- 
tated into the creek and at a point about half a mile below the 
bridge both the banks and the bed of the stream, including 
a heavy growth of willows, have been cut by a series of par- 
allel cracks and the trees and banks thrown into the stream, 
thus forming a partial dam. 

All of these cracks are roughly parallel with the stream and 
approximately with the supposed course of the fracture zone 
in the rock far below the surface. Simultaneously with the 
above phenomena, dozens of small geysers or spouting craters 
were formed along the creek and in the adjacent fields. The 
mouths of these varied in diameter from three inches to about 
15 inches, though the actual orifices probably do not exceed 
four or five inches in diameter. Mud and water were spouted 
to a height of over twenty feet, and continued to flow for sev- 
eral days. On some of the miniature craters incrustations of 
salt were deposited. The bridge above mentioned was shifted 
on its concrete supports, the two ends moving in opposite 
directions, and throughout the same locality rows of trees 
in the orchards are said to have been twisted and staggered 
out of shape. Above the valley to the east, in the solid rock 
of the mountains, practically no damage was sustained. 

D. Rowan, who accompanied me on the above examinations, 
spent several days on the Marin side of the Golden Gate, along 
the Pacific coast, and reports the following effect of the earth- 



EFFECTS OF THE EARTHQUAKE. 



169 



quake in that locality : The road crossing the sand-spit at the 
mouth of Bolinas bay is fissured and in places disturbed, and 
the high cliffs — about 150 feet — at the end of the peninsula 
have crumbled and fallen down, carrying small trees with 
them. At the village of Bolinas, the soil has slipped down 
easterly toward the lagoon and on the east side of the road, 
which runs north and south, the buildings are entirely demol- 
ished, while those further up the hill on the west side are not 
so badly affected. From Bolinas to Olema the road is dis- 
turbed all the way. About half a mile west of Olema at 
Skinner's dairy a well-defined fissure passes north and south 



r • ' 


■■ 




HP -^f 


J^ .^S^-^ 


»_ -- ""-""" ■ .*.•-»««: 



Ruined Buildings at Stanford University. 

under the barn, which is completely wrecked; the garden, 
lying between the two buildings, has slipped down the hill 
toward the lagoon in a northeast direction, following the slope 
of the land. It is said that higher up on the hills to the south- 
west of Olema the effect on the ground was worse and at a 
point about two miles in this direction an opening occurred 
in a yard where a cow was being milked, which swallowed up 
the animal so that its hind legs only were left out of the 
ground. From Skinner's the road runs north toward Inver- 
ness and for a distance of two miles it is so badly broken as to 
make vehicular traffic impracticable. The road from Inver- 



170 AFTER EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE. 

ness to Reyes Point station, running easterly and westerly 
and between one-half and three-quarters of a mile long, has 
broken about the center, the western portion being carried 
north 1 6 feet; a block 30 to 40 feet long has dropped down 
four feet. At Reyes Point station freight-cars, standing on 
the siding, were overturned to the west, following the slope of 
the ground. At Inverness, on the peninsula across Tomales 
Bay, the buildings along the low ground at the water-front 
were entirely demolished; in many cases they were thrown 
into the water and the wharves being apparently on short 
piles, were badly wrecked. Higher up on the hill, the motion 
was not felt to such an extent. Along the coast, the railway 
was greatly disturbed, invariably sinking in the low swampy 
land except where built on piling. At Tomales, about eight 
miles inland, the line for over 1,000 feet was carried down a 
gentle slope to the east for a distance of 50 feet. All these dis- 
turbances are exactly along the faulted line, now well defined, 
though the movement and action in each of the cases above 
noted has been entirely local and following the configuration 
of the ground. Little evidence, therefore, can be deduced 
pointing to a definite regional movement in any certain direc- 
tion. Buildings on ground resting on long piles seem undis- 
turbed and the worst effects are noted on or toward swampy 
ground. 



BHfij?r 




-ill! 

"II IB, 


ft* 


9 





FOLLOWING THE PAY-STREAK. 
By R. B. Nickerson. 

There are veins that seem to have been made to serve as 
illustrations for those who teach mining by books. They pre- 
sent ideal conditions. The veins are of a good size to work, 
say five or six feet and pitch at an angle of 50 or 60 °. The 
walls are hard and firm and the vein pursues the even tenor 
of its way in a stately and dignified fashion in length, breadth 
and depth. Very little water is encountered in the develop- 
ment work, but there is an abundance at hand for power, with 
timber, etc., in the immediate vicinity. To complete this pen 
picture we will say that the ore is free-milling and goes $25 
per ton. This is the kind of a mine that the honest miner 
had in his mind's eye when he remarked "Damn a mine that 
won't pay under any kind of management." Coming down to 
stern realities, it may be remarked that mines answering this 
description resemble the visits of angels in that they are few 
and far between. They are the good things, which like the 
buffalo seem to have long since disappeared from the face of 
the earth. They are the kind of mines that cause the for- 
tunate investor to regard mining as a good thing and to assure 
his friends that "legitimate mining is no gamble, but an indus- 
trial proposition." 

But how different from the foregoing description are the real 
conditions that usually confront the miner ! All kinds of diffi- 
culties must be faced. The veins are uneven and irregular, 
often consisting of a system of streaks difficult to understand 
or follow. Separated by horses, displaced by dikes and faults, 
many feet apart, it is no wonder that orebodies are missed, 
overlooked or lost. Wet, heavy ground is encountered requir- 
ing large pumping plants, and a forest of timber is used to 
hold the ground up. The cream of the mines, the rich sur- 
face ore, further enriched by erosion and oxidation, is all gone. 
The miner must sink deep shafts or run long tunnels in order 
to open up bodies of lower grade ore — often so low-grade that, 
after equipment and months of development, the expense when 
subtracted from yield, leaves but a small margin of profit and 



FOLLOWING THE PAY-STREAK. 173 

that profit possible only when the closest and most rigid econ- 
omy has been observed. The patient and long-suffering stock- 
holder feels that mining is not all his fervid imagination had 
painted. Let us suppose that a mine has been worked for 
years at a profit, and while it may still be paying, the manage- 
ment deem it advisable to sink a new shaft or drive a new adit 
to tap the vein deeper than the present workings, in hopes of 
finding orebodies below. The work is done and the miner 
finds himself hundreds of feet below the old workings and in 
virgin ground. If a perpendicular shaft has been sunk, he 
starts his cross-cut to intersect the vein formation. The cru- 
cial moment has arrived. The development work has not been 
done without a great deal of deliberation and planning, in 
which expert opinion has been called in from the outside and 
paid for. The work has cost thousands of dollars. Obstinate 
and conservative members of the board of directors have been 
argued with and brought over to the new plan; and now the 
time has arrived when any stroke of the pick may uncover the 
much-coveted prize — a good orebody. The life of the mine de- 
pends upon what the development work will discover. To the 
superintendent who has faith in the mine and has recom- 
mended the work, it is a trying time. There is no rest for 
him now. The vein is struck with a rush of water; so far so 
good. The fissure is open, but what a disappointment! The 
gouge is there, but without ore ; the formation is dull and dry 
looking. The quartz is glassy and brittle with no life in it; 
it contains some sulphides, but they are not the right kind. 
It is evident that there is no orebody here; it must be found 
elsewhere. 

One way to prospect a mine in the condition just pictured, 
is to cross-cut the vein formation and drift on the foot-wall, 
making cross-cuts at intervals of every 50 or 100 feet so as to 
test the formation up to the hanging wall and a little beyond 
it. But in mines when the lode-channel is large, this is often a 
very expensive method, as the cross-cuts must be hundreds of 
feet in length to get to the hanging wall. Hard slips are met 
with, carrying gouge and quartz, resembling the vein and 
making it impossible to be certain that they are the main 



174 AFTER EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE. 

hanging wall, and that there may not be an orebody beyond. 
It is necessary to drive cross-cuts at comparatively short dis- 
tances apart, for an orebody might lie between any two of 
them. But there are several ways to kill a cat, and the ex- 
perienced miner knows that an orebody resembles a tree in 
that its feeders spread in all directions from the main mass. 
Whatever cause, whatever convulsion of nature opened the 
fissure so that a place was made for the ore deposit, it also 
made its pressure felt for hundreds of feet from the main ore 
deposit. It is an interesting study to examine the formation 
surrounding a worked-out orebody, and it is instructive also. 
There is generally, even in the same mine, something distinc- 
tive and characteristic about the formation of each individual 
orebody, peculiar to itself. Even the mineral constituting the 
separate orebodies will vary, and can be recognized by one 
familiar with the mine. It is interesting to follow, where pos- 
sible, the drifts, raises, etc., leading to a worked out orebody. 
Test the filling of the fissure by panning, observe the forma- 
tion and see just where the first indication of ore appeared. 
It will frequently be found hundreds of feet from the shoot. 
The pocket miner puts this knowledge to practical use in fol- 
lowing the paystreak to the pocket. All quartz mines resemble 
each other in this respect, both gold and silver and some lead 
mines. The orebodies throw off their feeders just as the 
pocket does, and while it is often a difficult matter to follow 
them, if once a streak of gold quartz is found and followed it 
will sooner or later lead to ore, that is, in most mines. Some 
veins never were any good and never will yield an orebody. 
The feeders are there, but they do not bunch. These mines 
are strictly no good, but if a vein has made one good orebody 
it is a strong argument that it will make another. But it is 
often a delicate matter to follow these feeders. Many compli- 
cations and difficulties are met with. One is literally groping 
in the dark. Much experience and judgment are required. It 
has often happened, especially in the old silver 'chloriding' 
days when men worked on the tribute system, that after a cer- 
tain part of the mine had been considered thoroughly pros- 
pected by the company, a party of miners working on a lease 



FOLLOWING THE PAY-STREAK. 175 

of the ground and by following these little pay-streaks, would 
strike ore. Large and valuable orebodies have been found in 
this way, that probably would never have been found in any 
other way. 

In the case cited, the cross-cut is being driven ahead and 
the old reliable gold pan is brought into play and everything 
thenceforth is panned and prospected. The development work 
goes ahead testing the vein, and every method known to mod- 
ern mining is used to crowd the work ahead. Gasless powder 
is used. The steam-pipe to the pump and water-column are 
tapped, and a steam-jet and small water-pipe are run to the 
face. Extra men are put on to throw back the waste, to lay 
track, pipe, etc., so that a cross-bar can be set up at once and 
the back holes drilled while the waste is being shoveled. The 
best men, the pick of the mine, are put on the job and no ex- 
pense is spared to rush the work in every way possible. The 
panning goes on, but not a color of gold is found and the 
assays yield nothing. A water-hose is run out to the end of 
the waste-dump and carloads of the muck are washed over to 
get a good look at the formation, but it looks dry and dead. 
The panning goes on, and finally one morning a tiny speck 
of gold is seen in the pan. Where did it come from? More 
pannings are made, but with no results. Finally a pan is 
washed with several little specks in it and in the washings 
is found a little piece of a bluish looking quartz, not a quarter 
of an inch cube, with a speck of galena in it. Down in the 
mine goes the superintendent and every inch of the last round 
blasted is gone over with painstaking care. Ah! Here it is! 
A tiny streak of gouge, not thicker than a knife-blade! He 
tries it with the point of his candlestick and finds a little grit. 
A handful is taken on top and carefully panned, and he sees 
something that sends a thrill of exultation through him. None 
of your little specks this time, but a good prospect! Plenty 
of fine gold and a few coarse colors! But he is suddenly 
chilled with the thought that it may be coming from the ore 
above; that it is nothing but the drizzle end of that ore giv- 
ing out. Never mind, it must be followed, so down in the mine 
he goes and gives his orders, "When you set up again, boys, 



176 AFTER EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE. 

put your round in the cross-cut and drill another round here 
in the side from the same bar. We will start a drift here" ; and 
the drift is started following the paystreak. These are anxious 
days for the superintendent and his foreman. The men share 
in the tension. They realize the importance of the work. 
They know why they were put there and what is expected of 
them and they bend their brawny muscles over the throbbing 
drill and work as men nowhere else do underground. The 
drift goes ahead, following that tiny thread of gold as it turns 
its tortuous way through the formation. Other seams and 
slips come in, but the right one must be picked out. The 
5-foot rounds frequently leave it to one side or the other, but 
it must be found again. The "old man" has left word that he 
is to be called whenever they blast, day or night, and when 
the watchman raps lightly on his window and says, "You 
are wanted below, sir, they just blasted," he is up and down 
in the mine again to find that the last round lost the streak. 
A slip has cut it off, slick and clean. Now begins a hunt to 
find it. Which way did the slip cut it? From this way, of 
course. He gouges in on the slip and pans the gouge on a 
shovel-blade. There is the gold. He drills on the slip, several 
rounds, maybe, following the gold. Finally the slip does not 
pan any more and he looks for the pay-streak. There it is. 
He knows it at a glance this time. The same tiny streak of 
gritty gouge. Ahead again, and so on through all its erratic, 
winding course he traces and follows it with skill and patience ; 
sometimes lost for days at a time, but always picked up again. 
Finally it begins to assume something of a definite shape. 
The walls become more regular and distinct; the gouge is 
thicker, more water follows the streak and there is more 
quartz showing up. It continues to improve. More water 
comes in. The quartz is soon a foot thick and prospects fine. 
A hay-maker could follow it now. The "old man" gives 
orders to blast the waste first, muck back, blast the ore and 
send it to the mill, and says, "Boys, I think we have made a 
strike here." He writes to the company that good ore is com- 
ing into the south drift and it looks favorable. It is all ore 
now and all going to the mill. The plates brighten up. The 



FOLLOWING THE PAY-STREAK. 177 

ore from the drift is sweetening the low-grade ore from the 
other stopes and the mill-boss says: "Can't you give us a 
little more of that rock from the bottom? That's good stuff." 

When he goes to the bottom and stands in the drift running 
through the orebody, a feeling of pride and satisfaction comes 
over him. He was right. His judgment was correct. It is 
a strike, sure enough. There is no doubt of it. He feels "some 
proud" as he surveys the length and breadth of it. There is 
ore enough in sight to insure the prosperity of the mine for 
several years to come. He feels a personal' interest in it. He 
found it and he knows how easy it would have been to have 
missed it many times, and that the ore might have lain undis- 
covered for years and might have never been found. 

This is one way to find ore. It is going back to first prin- 
ciples. It has this advantage : It does not necessarily require 
a chemist, a geologist, or a mining engineer to do it. 



THE RECOVERY OF COPPER FROM MINE 
DRAINAGE. 

By Philip Argall. 

The precipitation of copper from mine drainage is of com- 
paratively recent introduction in the West, while in Europe 
it has been established as a profitable industry for at least 200 
years. When and where the process of precipitating (on iron) 
the copper in mine drainage was first turned to practical ac- 
count is difficult to determine. The phenomenon of cementa- 
tion is mentioned by Agricola, who wrote in 1546. The 
process is said to have been in operation near Rio Tinto, Spain, 
in 1661. Dr. Edward Brown, in the Philosophical Transac- 
tions for the year 1670, describes the process of copper pre- 
cipitation as practiced at the Ziment Springs, Herrengrund, 
while at Agorda in the Venetian Alps it was said to have been 
introduced in 1692. As far as I can find out, the first practical 
application in the British Isles of the process of precipitating 
the copper from mine drainage upon iron scrap, occurred at 
the Cronebane mines, in Wicklow county, Ireland, about the 
year 1750. Dr. Henry Kenroy, writing in the Philosophical 
Transactions for 1751, states that the process was discovered 
by reason of some workmen at the Cronebane mine having left 
a shovel in the mine water, which was found when taken out 
to be turned into copper. Whereupon Mr. Matthew Johnston, 
one of the proprietors of the mine, turned the discovery to 
account, in the following process, which is compiled from Dr. 
Kenroy's paper, previously cited. 

The drainage of the mines was run into a chain of oblong 
pits, each ten feet long, four feet wide and eight feet deep, 
the bottoms of which were laid with smooth flagstones and the 
sides built up with stone and lime, with rude wooden beams 
across the pits to lay the iron bars upon. The copper replaced 
the iron, which passed off in solution; to hasten this reaction, 
the iron bars were frequently taken up and the copper rubbed 
off into the pit; in about twelve months the whole bar was 
dissolved if the iron was soft, but hard iron or steel was acted 



RECOVERY OF COPPER FROM DRAINAGE. 179 

on less quickly and therefore was found not to answer so 
well. When the iron was dissolved, the water was turned 
off the pit and the copper shoveled out; this red copper mud 
was laid in heaps and when dry became reddish dust. One 
ton of iron produced i ton ig% cwt. of this precipitate, each 
ton of which produced 16 cwt. pure copper; that is to say 
one ton of iron was sufficient to produce i ton 11^2 cwt. cop- 
per which was worth £10 more per ton than the copper 
smelted from the ore. 

It was subsequently found advantageous to run the drain- 
age into settling pits, and to pass only the clear water over 
the irons. Evidently only a small quantity of the copper in 
solution was saved, as it appeared that the pits might be 
continued as far as the workers pleased; for the waters did 
not sensibly abate in quality by being subjected to the process. 
The quantity of copper running waste about this time must 
have been enormous as in one stream, 'the Sulphur brook,' 
it was calculated to be 129,600 grains per minute, or 124,100 
lb. per annum. 

Dr. Pryce, in his 'Mineralogia Cornubiesis,' published in 
1778, page 291, gives credit for the introduction of copper 
precipitation at Cronebane to some Cornish miners who, hav- 
ing emigrated from Chacewater, settled at Cronebane; he 
adds, "Captain Thomas Butler, who was one of Redruth, and 
manager of that mine (Cronebane), persuaded the proprietors 
to adopt the scheme of precipitating copper." It is also re- 
lated that the precipitation of copper on iron was noticed at 
the Chacewater mine, Redruth, Cromwell, in 1728; but I 
believe no practical use was made of the discovery till 1854. 
That a person named Butler was once at Cronebane is prob- 
ably true, as there is a shaft on the property known as the 
Madam Butler. This, however, shows a leaning toward Irish 
gallantry; I do not recall that Cornishmen name shafts after 
their wives, and the name Butler is surely Irish. Then, as 
Dr. Kenroy wrote of what he had seen in 1751 and Dr. Pryce 
of what tradition had handed down to him, 27 years later, I 
am inclined to support the former and award to the Irish 
the first profitable application of the copper precipitation 



180 AFTER EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE. 

process in the British Isles. Furthermore the precipitation of 
copper from Cronebane mine drainage was an industry of 
considerable magnitude 150 years ago, the production of cop- 
per precipitates from 1753 to 1765 amounting to no less than 
$82,280; quite a respectable output considering the small 
amount of development on the veins, the appliances used in 
precipitation and the recent introduction of a mysterious and 
little understood process. 

The pumping of acid waters in many Western mines is yet 
a matter of much experiment and considerable expense, on 
account of the corrosion of the pipes, plungers, etc. Many 
experiments have been made, with lead-lined pipes, special 
bronzes and subtle chemical compounds, in attempts to 
re-solve a problem that our forebears had satisfactorily eluci- 
dated before the foundations of modern chemistry were laid. 
Probably the first form of pump-column was the bored out 
and hooped log. These I have myself seen in the old work- 
ings of the Cronebane mine, abandoned before the time of the 
oldest miner thirty years ago, showing they are probably 
considerably over a century, and perhaps two centuries, old. 

With the introduction of cast-iron pipes, it was but a short 
step forward to line them with wood, known at that time by 
previous experience, to be practically unaffected by the cu- 
prous waters; nay more, it was found that the wood-lined 
pipe accumulated a deposit of ferric oxide which adhered 
tenaciously to the wood, and if not scraped off periodically it 
would in time choke the pipes. 

I remember when a schoolboy seeing very acidulous water 
pumped from the Wicklow copper mines by means of Cornish 
pumps, the cast-iron water-columns of which were lined with 
quarter-inch soft-wood staves, the flange-joints of the pipes 
were made with gaskets composed of an iron ring 1^ by % 
in., around which was wrapped a thickness of two inches of 
coarse flannel soaked in tar. In screwing up the pipe-joints 
this tarred flannel was pressed out over the wood lining, 
securely sealing the iron pipe from the acid waters, as well as 
making a tight joint between the pipes. Coarse tarred flannel 
was also wrapped around the pipes where exposed to falling 



RECOVERY OF COPPER FROM DRAINAGE. 181 

water, and it was well painted with warm tar. The suction 
pipes for these pumps were made from logs of beech wood, 
bored out to size and the bottom drilled with suitable holes 
to form the straining orifice for the pump; the plungers and 
glands were made of bronze, the valves of copper and leather, 
but these metals corroded and were about the only parts of 
the pumps that required frequent attention and occasional 
renewal. I might add that in a wide and somewhat varied 
practice extending over thirty years I have never seen a case 
where the foregoing appliances would not satisfactorily handle 
the drainage of copper mines, no matter how corrosive. 

The nature of the reaction between metallic iron and copper 
solution was of course not understood in 1751, twenty-three 
years before Priestley discovered oxygen; a quarter of a cen- 
tury before Lavoisier elucidated the theory of combustion 
and 53 years prior to the announcement of the atomic theory 
by Dalton. Therefore in the limited precipitation works exist- 
ing at the time when Dr. Kenroy wrote, the operators might 
well be excused for considering the transmutation of iron into 
copper a continuous and unending reaction, for so far as their 
works extended "the water did not sensibly abate in quality 
by being subjected to the process." The mine drainage was 
evidently very rich in those early days; however, 47 years 
later (1798), the copper value of the Cronebane mine drain- 
age had fallen off materially and we find the poor pyrites ore 
was heap-roasted and subsequently leached to enrich the cop- 
per salts in the drainage of the mines. As the active working 
of the mine fell off, the copper carried in solution gradually 
disappeared. I helped to re-open the Cronebane mine in 1874, 
at which time the effluent water carried but a slight trace of 
copper, though the mine had not been closed over twenty 
years. The drainage adits were, however, filled with ocher 
almost to the roof and the above-water stopes and vein expos- 
ures were almost completely sealed with ocherous deposits. 

The Connorree mine, adjoining Cronebane to the east, was 
credited prior to 1872 with $75,000 worth of copper precipi- 
tate per annum, and was worked for a year or two almost en- 
tirely for the cement copper obtained from the mine drainage. 



182 AFTER EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE. 

This, be it remembered, with coal at a high figure and all the 
water pumped from a depth of 90 fathoms. The mine closed 
down in 1880 and has not since been opened, but a published 
analysis of the stagnant mine-water taken in 1884, showed, 
it is claimed, 40 grains of copper to the gallon, — an excessive 
amount. The process of kernel roasting was carried out on 
the low-grade copper ores of the Connorree mine in the late 
sixties, and the oxidized envelopes of the sulphide kernels were 
leached in the mine-water, to remove the soluble sulphates, 
and enrich the waters on their way to the precipitation plant. 

The Ballygahan mine on the same lode series, but west of 
the Avoca river, was not much of a copper mine, but a pre- 
cipitation plant was added near the close of its active career, 
continued in daily profitable operation for five or six years 
after active mining had ended. The pumps, however, were 
operated by water power. Mr. G. A. Kinahan made the fol- 
lowing analysis of Ballygahan mine waters about two years 
after the close of active mining: (The returns are in parts 
per 100,000.) 

Before 
Precipitation. After. 

Ferrous oxide 81.81 94-75 

Ferric oxide 4.30 6.70 

Cupric oxide 9.32 1.91 

Sulphuric acid 634.26 642.34 

Manganese oxide 2.30 2.50 

Zinc oxide 1.20 1.80 

Returning to the Cronebane mine, the re-opening of which, 
after twenty years' idleness I have previously referred to; it 
was found that as the stopes, drifts and working faces were 
cleaned, oxidation again proceeded; and the effluent waters 
of the mine became rich in copper. The portal of the principal 
adit, however, was well within the boundary of the adjoin- 
ing property, the owners of which made big profits from the 
enriched drainage of the Cronebane mine. After repeated 
demands for a share of the profits derived from the precipi- 
tation works, which met with as many refusals, I was in- 
structed by the manager of the Cronebane mine — whose assist- 



RECOVERY OF COPPER FROM DRAINAGE. 183 

ant I then was — to proceed with the underground precipita- 
tion plant that we had worked out. The plant was a great 
success, as owing to the higher temperature of the water, its 
freedom from sediment and almost entire absence of ocher, 
we secured excellent precipitation. Our selfish neighbors 
were, however, almost driven out of business, as owing to the 
oxidation of the ferrous salts traveling through 2500 ft. of 
adit, the water carried much suspended hydrated ferric oxide 
on reaching the surface, and the precipitation plant of our 
neighbors acted mainly as catch pits for the ocher. 

Immediately below the gossan of the Cronebane vein a 
rather soft clay filling occurred, carrying abundance of granu- 
lar pyrite and various copper minerals, including sulphate; 
the leaching of these deposits in place by first opening them up 
with numerous small drifts and then turning down water 
through the loose gossan, soon formed a prominent portion 
of our mining work. These copper-bearing solutions were col- 
lected on the various levels between the outcrop and the lower 
adit, turned down through certain old stopes and fillings and 
were finally collected at the lower adit, the copper being pre- 
cipitated from solution on pig iron. As we had no pay-ore 
on this adit at that time, our mining operations there consisted 
in lowering pig iron through the shafts, hoisting cement cop- 
per and attending to the underground precipitation plant. 

As experience was gained in leaching copper ore in place, 
the following working cycle was evolved: (A) A period for 
oxidation; (B) A period for solution and (C) A period for 
the removal of the ferric oxide which had a tendency to seal 
up the sulphides and prevent further oxidation. The first 
two periods were obtained by dividing the ground into sec- 
tions, some of which were oxidizing while others were leach- 
ing. The C period was obtained by running short drifts across 
the vein and allowing them to cave; stoping was in some 
cases resorted to, simply to give room for the settling of the 
vein matter, — while in bad cases the vein-matter in places was 
caved through to the gossan workings, and the material 
used to fill stopes below, in which the caved material was in 
due time again subjected to a leaching process. The method 



184 AFTER EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE. 

was entirely successful, but after my retirement it fell into 
disuse and the mine was eventually closed down. 

I visited this property in the summer of 1901 after twenty- 
two years' absence, during twenty years of which the mine 
was idle. I found that the precipitation of copper from the 
mine drainage had long since been abandoned, because there 
was but little copper in the water, and that little could not 
be precipitated on account of the great quantity of ocher 
present. The ocher industry was, however, flourishing, large 
settling ponds having been constructed at the mouths of the 
adits, to collect this pigment, which commanded a ready sale. 
Some men were gophering through the softer and yellowish 
gossan on the back of the lode, in search of ocher of sufficient 
purity for pigment. One party had penetrated the gossan and 
reached the soft granular pyrites previously described; their 
picks and shovels, coated with metallic copper, excited no 
attention from the descendants of a keen and intelligent race 
of miners. 

Here the shovel episode of 1750 is repeated, a century and 
a half later, in a slightly different manner. The copper sul- 
phate in the moist pyritic sand and clay underlying the gossan 
attacked the iron of the tools, plating them with copper. The 
mining spirit and even tradition had, however, taken their de- 
parture, and the husbandman gophering between seedtime and 
harvest in the surface workings of a great vein, failed to 
realize the importance of the treasure that not only sur- 
rounded him, but actually plated the instruments of his toil. 



PERSPECTIVE IN MINING. 

By J. Parke Channing. 

An Address to the Engineering Society of Columbia 

University. 

The melancholy Jacques in 'As You Like It' says, "Call 
me not fool till Heaven hath sent me fortune." Call me not 
fool till Fortune hath sent me the opening up and equipment 
of a mine; for in mining there is so much that is not teach- 
able, nevertheless learnable, that unless a man has this in- 
stinct, inherent in all capable persons, he can never hope to 
achieve success as an engineer. Each mine is, so to speak, a 
law unto itself, and not until the engineer recognizes this can 
he get true perspective in mining. 

When you leave school and start out in practical life there 
are certain things that you have heard in your studies which 
have impressed themselves upon you. The reason for that 
impression would be hard for you to say. It may be that 
some particular thing had interested you because of some 
previous experience of yours. As a result you are really not 
able to define the proper relations between things, and that 
is one of the reasons why a man, after he graduates, should 
not start immediately on consulting work, or take entire 
charge of any enterprise. 

It should be remembered that your course in the school is 
simply one of preparation; in other words, if you want to 
learn the mining business you have got to go into the mines 
and study it, just as if you were going to learn the dry-goods 
business you would have to go to a dry-goods store; to learn 
banking you would begin as a messenger or clerk and work 
your way up. The only advantage of going to a school of 
mines is that you get a technical education; you have a cer- 
tain ground-work, which helps you out, and you also have 
gained a very important thing in knowing how to study, 
and knowing how to put two and two together so as to make 
four, and not three or five. 

When a man goes out I would advise him to get a position 



186 AFTER EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE. 

at some mine or metallurgical works; it is not always desir- 
able that it should be a particularly large mine or works; 
often he gets a better knowledge of what is going on by work- 
ing in a smaller mine. When you take your first position in 
a mine I would advise you to work underground. This gives 
you an opportunity of watching mining work — sinking, drift- 
ing, stoping, timbering, tramming, — and it particularly gives 
you your first idea of the proper relation of things. 

About fifteen years ago I was running the East New York 
mine at Ishpeming, Mich., and Mr. T. F. Cole, who is now 
manager of all the iron mines of the United States Steel Cor- 
poration, was running the Queen group of mines at Negaunee, 
Mich. We used to compare cost sheets, and his cost of de- 
velopment amounted to 2.5 cents per ton and mine amounted 
to 25 cents per ton. The reason for this was that his ore- 
body was in area ten times as large as mine, and, although my 
shafts and cross-cuts were of the same length as his, the de- 
creased tonnage was against me. This simply shows how the 
cost of development has got to be watched in its reference 
to the size of the ore deposit. 

Take for example the opening of an iron mine at Lake 
Superior; after first striking the ore, the proper thing to do 
is to sink a small one-compartment shaft, one big enough for a 
good size bucket and ladder. With a shaft of this size you can 
get down to the ore and you can get out a good deal of ore. 
After you have gone down a hundred feet and have your drift, 
and have some idea of the size and shape of the orebody, you 
can, if you find the conditions warrant it, put in a larger shaft. 

I have seen prospecting or development schemes wrecked 
by the man in charge spending a lot of money and time in 
sinking what he called a "working shaft," and when he got 
down found that there was nothing to work, or at least it 
could have been worked through a small shaft. In prospect- 
ing or small mine work you don't want to put in any brick 
set or water-tube boilers, and you don't want too large an 
engine. You want to get a cheap portable locomotive or 
upright boiler. It won't hurt to burn a few extra cords of 
wood. 



PERSPECTIVE IN MINING. 187 

On the other hand, you also want to try to get the idea of 
how far you should go on equipment without going to the 
point of over-equipment. Suppose, for example, that you 
finally take hold of a mine that is developed and is producing 
ore for shipment, and you find the mine is fairly well equipped 
when you get there. You may find a great many things that 
do not satisfy you or do not come up to your ideas. You may 
find a shaft-house that was badly arranged; you may find 
that the hoisting engine is one that uses too much steam, and 
the compressor is not the right thing; that the shaft is 
crooked, and there is no skip only a bucket. Now, don't be 
in too much of a hurry to tear all of these out; go ahead and 
see what you can do with them, until you get to the point 
that you can definitely see and figure it out in dollars and 
cents, just how much you will save if you were to sink a new 
shaft or straighten out the old one ; or if you were to build 
a new engine house or put in a new engine. 

Some of the men who were at Copperhill, Tenn., last sum- 
mer remember the excellent plant we had at the Burra Burra 
mine; there was a brick house containing water-tube boilers; 
there was a big power-house which contained a first-motion 
hoisting engine, together with a cross-compound, two-stage, 
air compressor, with room to put in another one. There was 
also a shaft crusher house with its paraphernalia. When I 
equipped that mine I had at the same time the idea of later 
putting in a similar equipment at the London mine, and I had 
the plans drawn and everything arranged for it. But, after 
carefully thinking the matter over and seeing the tonnage 
that came from the latter mine, I finally came to the con- 
clusion that I would make a great mistake to take this mine, 
which was only 500 ft. long and 30 ft. wide, as compared with 
the Burra Burra, which was 1,600 ft. long and 80 ft. wide, 
and give it the same equipment, notwithstanding the fact that 
it would be very nice to have two or three mines all provided 
with exactly the same type of equipment. So, instead of put- 
ting in a duplicate of the plant we had at the Burra Burra, 
I simply bought a cheap geared hoist and put it back of the 
London shaft in a small building covered with corrugated iron, 



188 AFTER EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE. 

and we used the same boilers that had been used there since 
the beginning of the development work. 

The more you work the more you will find out that there is 
absolutely nothing that cuts down cost as much as tonnage. 
Another suggestion is this: When you start up a new mine 
don't be in too much of a hurry to build a nice house for the 
manager or superintendent, or too grand an office building. 
That is one of the things that an English engineer at a new 
mine looks after before anything else. The first thing he does 
is to build himself a house, and then he goes ahead and de- 
velops the mine. If your mine happens to turn out all right 
it is very good to have lived well while developing it; but if 
it does not turn out all right, then the house that you built 
will be a monument to your folly. While I don't advise you 
to open up a mine and live in a hut or tent all winter, you 
must use proper judgment as to the kind of a house you do 
build. 

Take, for example, the cost of underground haulage; you 
know that the tendency nowadays is to do underground haul- 
age, wherever possible, with electric locomotives. It figures 
out as very economical, and the electrical people will be only 
too glad to estimate on the cost of installation and operation, 
but you must remember that it is the opinion of most mining 
men that for medium distances, say 500 or 600 ft., you can 
do nothing better than to use man power, for the reason that 
you have to give the man loading the cars a rest and he gets 
this rest, if the grades are properly made, by pushing his car 
out and waiting a minute or two at the shaft until it is dumped, 
and then pushing the car back again. This is a change from 
loading the ore, and so he trams really for nothing. 

At one of the mines in Bingham Canyon, Utah, they mine 
about 1,000 tons per day, and it comes out from one adit, 
where it is handled by four horses — two on each shift. At 
one of the adjoining mines they put in an electric tramming 
plant, and yet the tonnage they have could readily be handled 
by two horses. It does not take much figuring to see that two 
horses are cheaper in first cost and up-keep than an electric 
installation. So, therefore, in adopting any particular appa- 



PERSPECTIVE IN MINING. 189 

ratus, or any particular method, you must take into consider- 
ation the tonnage and conditions under which it is operated. 

When you come to metallurgical work this factor will be 
strongly emphasized. Remember that you do not want to get 
things too automatic. I remember when I was talking with 
the late Richard P. Rothwell, of 'The Engineering & Mining 
Journal,' about Mr. Edison's iron-ore plant out in New Jer- 
sey; he said that the plant was too automatic, and that once 
in a while there should have -been an Italian with a shovel. 
You will notice that at some concentrating mills they may 
have a certain product that has to be handled or moved to 
some other part of the plant for re-treatment. In a small mill 
that amount is so slight that one man could shovel it as it 
accumulates, so that under these circumstances it is no use 
putting in an elevator or some other apparatus to handle this 
small amount of material. In a large mill, however, it may 
be really necessary to have something to carry your concen- 
trate and middling from various points where they are pro- 
duced to a central point. 

In metallurgical work, modern practice is along the line 
of labor-saving devices, but in a small blast-furnace plant, 
where you have but one furnace, it is a question whether it 
would pay you to put in a so-called automatic charging appa- 
ratus. This is the method in use at large plants, where the 
ore is run into cars and pulled by an electric locomotive to 
the furnaces. I believe that there is no doubt that one could 
get better metallurgical results in copper-blast furnaces by 
hand-charging than by dumping the charge from cars, but 
the cost would over-balance the metallurgical saving. 

In places like Mexico, where wages are only 75 cents to 
one dollar per day, it is sometimes impossible to get enough 
men to do the work, which, of course, necessitates your put- 
ting in labor-saving devices, not to save money, but to run 
at all. When we started in Tennessee labor was a dollar per 
day, and we seriously considered whether it would be advis- 
able to put in a charging apparatus for the furnaces. But I 
felt that in the South it would be difficult at times to get 
labor, and so, fortunately, I put in electric charging cars, and 



190 AFTER EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE. 

they have been a great success. This question of shortage of 
labor is important in an agricultural country. Take for ex- 
ample in Mexico: In the springtime the men go off to plant 
their corn, and when it comes autumn they go off to harvest 
it. You notice the same thing in Tennessee. In the spring 
the men go to plant their crops, and when the time comes to 
harvest, off they go; they do this regardless of whether it 
would pay them better to attend to their farms or not. For 
instance, in Central Mexico, where laborers receive two or 
three dollars a day, a man will leave his position and go to 
harvest a $30 crop and lose $60 in wages. 

A man can frequently be penny wise and pound foolish in 
refusing to advance the wages of good men. So do not always 
be looking at your payroll with the idea that the best way to 
economize is to cut down wages. The first thing that an 
untrained man does when he goes to a mine is to try to find 
some way to save money. He looks at the payroll and finds 
that it amounts to $10,000 per month and that the supplies are 
$5,000, and that the mine is running behind. He concludes 
that the only way to remedy the matter is to cut wages. He 
does this; his men loaf, or the best leave him, and he runs 
still worse behind. 

You want to be careful to see what work per man per day 
you get, so therefore it is essential to remember when you are 
engaging labor to pay about the same wages that are being 
paid by others in the district, and be slow about reducing 
wages, but see that the men work. Try rather to keep your 
wages a little bit higher than anybody else, so that you can 
get the best men; let the other fellows keep the poor men. 
If you get a good man and pay him 25 cents more per day, he 
will probably do a great deal more work. 

Perhaps the young men who were down in Tennessee re- 
member the two big trammers we had at the Burra Burra 
mine. One of the men has been with us at least four years. 
He is a stout, husky fellow, and would load just as many 
cars as two ordinary men would do. Two ordinary men would 
load ore at 18 cents per car and perhaps get out 20 cars per 
day, while this one man would get out 16 or 18 cars himself. 



PERSPECTIVE IN MINING. 191 

Now, then, think of the money we would save if all our men 
were of that kind. It would mean that, if we wished to, we 
could practically double the output of our mines. 

Another thing you want to bear in mind is this: Never be 
afraid to engage a man who knows more than you do ; that is 
just the kind of a man you are looking for and just the one you 
want. A young man, as a rule, never wants to engage a man, 
or have any man under him, who knows more than he does. 
If you engage a foreman, get one that knows all about the 
handling of men. If you get an engineer, get an engineer that 
knows something that you do not know, one who has had 
lots of experience at other mines; his experience will be of 
great benefit to you in solving new problems that will arise. 

While I have referred more to the economical details of 
operating, there is another perspective view which takes a 
long time to get, and that is a comparative idea as to value 
of mines — whether there is really a mine or not — or whether 
it is going to be a small mine or a large mine; and the only 
way you get that is by looking at as many different mines as 
you possibly can. Never lose a chance when you are travel- 
ing or looking for a job to go into a mine and through its 
workings. If you visit a mine of any importance, try to get 
a position in the underground workings, because that is one 
of the things they cannot teach a man and which can only 
be acquired by long experience and by looking at different 
properties. 

I might say that your college experience has enabled you to 
make a quick decision. Really the main thing in mining is 
the capacity to see a property in a partially developed stage 
and from that inspection be able to determine whether it is 
going to be a mine. You find that it has 50,000 or 60,000 tons 
of ore in sight, and that it seems to have the earmarks of a 
large deposit, and you will advise your people to take it. If 
you have the courage of your convictions, if you think that 
it is good, stick to it and do not let the property go by. It is 
a great deal better for a man to make a mistake once in a 
while in getting hold of a property that does not turn out 
well than it is to let a good one go by. Still, however, if a 



192 AFTER EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE. 

young man makes two or three of these mistakes, it is likely 
to go against him in the long run ; so I say to you, that when 
you start out, keep away from making these examinations, or, 
at least, from consulting work. It is very nice for you to 
go in as assistant to some engineer and help him in sampling 
and making determinations as to the value of mines, but do 
not get yourself into a position where you are called upon to 
pass judgment upon mines, because you may get yourself into 
some bad predicament, which will take a long time to live 
down. 

I do not want you to understand that I would recommend 
a man starting out to begin as an assistant for an examining 
engineer. It is pleasant work, but I think that if one starts 
out in it he is liable to get rather a bad habit. Remember that 
the really successful consulting engineer is that man who has 
the capacity to size up a mine and to determine its value, and 
who thoroughly understands the cost of operating it. The 
whole tendency today is toward the mining of low-grade ore- 
bodies, and the question of operating expense is one of vastly 
more importance than the question of sampling and assaying 
the ore. For example, take the large porphyry orebody in 
Bingham Canyon, Utah; a man who examined it stated that 
it averaged less than 2%, yet his samples checked those of the 
mine manager within 0.01 per cent. 

I recently examined a concentrating property in Nevada 
and the ore ran slightly under 3%, my samples checked on one 
of the mines within 0.03 % and on the other mine within 0.02' , 
of the results of the management. So you see that sampling, 
to a certain extent, is mechanical. In a large concentrating 
proposition of this kind the main thing is, what is it going to 
cost to mine and treat the ore. The original report on this 
mine by the manager had been taken over to Paris by the 
senior member of a large banking house and the figures as to 
the grade of the ore and the cost of treatment submitted to sev- 
eral French engineers, who simply laughed at the thing, and 
said it was impossible to treat ore of that grade. My examin- 
ation showed that the conditions were exactly right for a big 
property — one that could be handled and show a large profit. 






PERSPECTIVE IN MINING. 193 

The trouble with the French engineers was that they had not 
kept up with the latest practice in concentrating or the latest 
methods in reverberatory smelting, and, while they were only 
two or three years behind, they might just as well have been 
twenty years behind the times. Therefore, I say to you that 
one of the most important things for a successful consulting 
engineer to have is a good knowledge of operating; the only 
way to get a true idea of operating is to work your way up 
from the bottom. 

There is also one other important thing in mine examination 
and mine operation, and that you have to study and pay par- 
ticular attention to, and that is the geology. If it is copper, 
you must keep yourself posted thoroughly on secondary en- 
richment; if you do not, you will have difficulty in getting 
along. It was about eight years ago that I examined the 
Highland Boy mine in Utah; the fourth and fifth levels were 
then opened up and showed an average of about 7.3 % copper 
and considerable gold and silver, but I could see plainly that 
a good deal of that copper was in the form of chalcocite, which 
I knew was secondary. Another engineer, who came out 
about the same time, looked the property over, and, although 
he agreed with my sampling and assaying, he predicted that 
the sixth level would only go one per cent; he gave too great 
a weight to secondary enrichment; later developments 
showed that the lower levels went four per cent, and the result 
was that his people lost a fine property. This simply shows 
the necessity for keeping thoroughly up on the literature of 
ore deposits, because it is being added to day after day with 
great rapidity. Of course, this is not as absolutely essential 
to you as a knowledge of operating, because there are certain 
geologists who make a specialty of studying ore deposits. In 
case of necessity, you can get a man of this kind to help you 
out, and you perhaps may be able to make certain economic 
conclusions which he was not able to see. Some of the big 
mining companies keep an economic geologist at work all the 
time. In a small mining company that is impossible, and the 
geologic work devolves upon the mining engineer. 

When you get a mining engineer you want to get a man 



194 AFTER EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE. 

that has been well schooled, one who understands geological 
conditions and is able to lay out future work. This has been 
done in the Butte mines in the last three or four years, and I 
believe there is not a single cross-cut in the mines of the 
Amalgamated that is not laid out on paper in the office before 
a stroke of work is done underground. Of course, you get a 
much better training now in geology than I ever got, not 
because your professors are any better, but simply because 
the subject is more thoroughly understood than it was twenty 
years ago. 

Therefore, I say to you to study economic geology just as 
much as possible, because the question of ore deposition is 
one of such vital importance that you must forever have it 
before you. Whenever you see an orebody, and it is a partic- 
ularly rich one, you want to look at it carefully and study 
the conditions and try to determine whether these conditions 
exist a hundred or a thousand feet down, or whether they are 
only local conditions. This capacity to see is one of the things 
that you can only learn by going around and seeing, and re- 
membering what you see. 



jWtnmg anb Scientific $res& 



ILLUSTRATED 
WEEKLY 
EIGHTY PAGES 



Established 
May 2 4, 1860 



Indispensable for Mine Managers, 
Superintendents, Engineers, 
Purchasing Agents, Foremen, and 
everyone interested in mining or 
metallurgical enterprises. 

Circulates in every part of the globe. 



EDITED AND CONTROLLED BY T. A. RICKARD 



Special Contributors: 

J. R. FINLAY 

H. c. Hoover 



PHILIP ARGALL 

Leonard S. Austin 

FRANCIS L. BOSQUI 
R. GILMAN BROWN 
J. PARKE CHANNING 
J. H. CURLE 



WALTER P. JENNEY 
JAMES F. KEMP 
CHARLES S. PALMER 
C. W. PURINGTON 



EDGAR RICKARD 



Business Manager 



Branch Offices: 
new york, 42 broadway 

CHICAGO, 1362 MONADNOCK BLOCK 
DENVER. 420 McPHEE BUILDING 



Published by the Dewey Publishing Company 



$3 per Year. Fifty-two Issues 

(ADD S2 FOR FOREIGN POSTAGE! 

SAN FRANCISCO. CALIFORNIA. U.S. A 



THE . . . 

METALLURGY OF COMMON METALS 

(GOLD, SILVER, IRON, COPPER, LEAD, AND ZINC) 



Leonard S. Austin 

Professor of Metallurgy and Ore Dressing, Michigan College of Mines, Houghton, Mich. 



First Edition. 1906 



This text-book incorporates the 20 years' experience of 
the author in the smelting of copper and lead ores, while the 
chapters upon cyaniding have been carefully corrected by 
Mr. Francis L. Bosoui, the well-known cyanide expert. 

Besides a full treatment of the metallurgy of the metals 
named, several chapters are devoted to the preparation of 
ores by sampling, crushing, and roasting ; to fuel and refrac- 
tories ; to thermo-chemistrv. and to the refining of metals. 

Much attention is given to the location and construction 
of metallurgical plants, to their organization and manage- 
ment, and to the commercial considerations involved in the 
handling of ores ard metals. 

Now in course of preparation and will be published by 
the Mining and Scientific Press. Ready in October. 
Pages — about 400. 



PRICE. $4 






7-USEFUL BOOKS-7 



By T. A. RICKARD 

EDITOR OF THE MINING AND SCIENTIFIC PRESS 



THE COPPER MINES OF LAKE SUPERIOR 

An attractive book describing the famous 
mines of the Keweenaw peninsula, with obser- 
vations on the methods employed in the mills 
and underground. 

ACROSS THE SAN JUAN MOUNTAINS 

An account of a 400-mile ride across the most 
interesting mining regions of Colorado. 

THE SAMPLING AND ESTIMATION OF ORE IN A MINE 

This describes an important branch of mining 
engineering, and is based upon many years of 
actual practice in the examination of mines. 
The value of the book is enhanced by a dis- 
cussion to which many distinguished engineers 
contributed. 

PYRITE SMELTING. Edited by T. A. Rickard 

Discussion and comment on the treatment of 
sulphide ores in the blast furnace without car- 
bonaceous fuel, with contributions by the lead- 
ing metallurgists of America. 

ORE DEPOSITS-A DISCUSSION. Edited by T. A. Rickard 

With contributions by S. F. Emmons, W. H. 
Weed, J. E. Spurr, W. Lindgren J. F. Kemp, 
F. L. Ransome, C. R. Van Hise, and C. W. 
Purington. 

ECONOMICS OF MINING. Edited by T. A. Rickard 

Discussion and comments by experienced min- 
ing engineers. The book deals vith mine 
valuation, costs, ratio of equipment o ore re- 
serves, and other allied subjects. 



$1 

$1 

$2 



$2 



$1 



$2 



THESE BOOKS CAN BE PURCHASED AT ANY OF THE OFFICES OF THE MINING AND SCIENTIFIC PRESS 













B 


O O K S 








You can get any technical 
book by writing to the 
Mining and Scientific Press. 






The standard text-books 
are kept in stock. 




We publish books. 


^-|T Write 
J] to us 


Several are in course of 
preparation, namely : 


and we 
shall be 
glad to 


'The Metallurgy of Common 
Metals ' 

by L. S. Austin. $4. 


get you 
any book 
you need. 


' Dredging for Gold in 
California ' 

by D'Arcy Weatherbe. $2. 




' Assaying ' 

by C. H. Aaron. 

Part I, $1. Parts II and III, 

$1.50. 




' Journeys of Observation ' 
Vol. I. 
by T. A. Rickard. $2. 



